The Darkness Returns
by BiteWorseThanBark
Summary: They thought they had destroyed him… they were dead wrong. And now… it was time for him to exact his revenge. Solaris is defeated, yet the timeline remains unchanged. With Mephiles butchering anyone close to Sonic, can a small handful of survivors stop him, or will they be exterminated too? Warning: multiple character deaths, swearing, slight case of mind-fuck & a bit of self-harm.
1. 0: It begins

**The Darkness Returns**

**It Begins**

In the dark chamber of Solaris, an orange haired young woman in white accompanied by a cobalt hedgehog approached an ornate object that contained a tiny white flame attached to the single visible wall. The container of the 'Flame of Hope' Solaris.

The pair stopped in front of the object to stare, mesmerized, at the flickering white flame contained within. Slowly the young woman stepped closer to the container, "This is where everything began…" she wistfully murmured aloud, walking towards the contained flame, "Who knew such a tiny flame could bring such devastation?"

She walked closer still to Solaris and held out a hand, palm facing towards the glass of the object, causing it to glow bright white and disappear. Delicately, she lifted Solaris' tiny silver cradle from the rest of the container and carefully held the small object at arm's length. "If we put out this flame… Solaris will never exist, and then we'll never have to worry about the flames of disaster, right?"

The blue hedgehog nodded once in silent response. The young woman stared down forlornly into the pure white core of Solaris, watching as it bent and swayed gently. "But our encounter…" she murmured, turning slowly to face the wide-eyed hedgehog. "You and I… will never meet."

The hedgehog's emerald eyes stared forlornly into her pale grey ones, each mirroring the other's sadness. "It will never have happened." the girl continued, eyes becoming moist with tears. She sniffled and took a few deep, hitching breaths to calm herself. Once she was composed she continued to talk, "I… to tell the truth," a single tear slid from her right eye, down her cheek and then her chin, leaving behind a thin wet trail in its wake. "I don't care what happens to the world!" she cried, no longer composed, her voice lightly echoing in the dark chamber. She bowed her head, and began to sob.

The hedgehog closed his eyes and slowly clenched and unclenched his fists. When he reopened his eyes, they stared calmly at the crying girl. "Elise." He said softly. Upon hearing her name, the Soleannan princess looked into his eyes. "Just smile." Sonic the hedgehog continued encouragingly. Elise lifted her head, pale pink lips tugging into a tiny smile. He returned the facial expression and nodded. The princess gazed back down at the flame, its brilliant light reflecting in her eyes. Slowly, she leaned back, inhaling through her nose as she did so. Then just as slowly, she leaned towards the tiny flame, breath puffing out gently from her mouth until the flame was extinguished, plunging the already dark chamber into full darkness.

A shadow on Solaris' container warped, stretching out and moving out of the container. As the shadow moved away, Solaris' bright light reilluminated the chamber with pure white, expelling most of the darkness. The shadow continued to warp until it became a black hedgehog with teal-grey stripes. Mephiles the Dark. Mephiles' smooth mouth less muzzle creased into what may have been a smirk. Solaris was still intact… he had succeeded.

Mere minutes ago, Solaris' final form, which was a fusion of Mephiles himself and the so called 'Flame of Hope', had been shamefully defeated by a trio of hedgehogs by the names of Sonic, Shadow and Silver. As Solaris and Mephiles began to disintegrate, Mephiles became a patch of shadow, attaching himself to the Princess of Soleanna, Elise. Mephiles' will to survive, coupled with his rage and wounded pride allowed him to prevent complete disintegration, unlike his soft-willed counterpart. Consequently, this allowed him to travel with Sonic and the princess to Solaris' chamber. With his other half in sight, Mephiles quickly detached himself from the princess and slipped into Solaris' container, shielding his other half from sight as the princess tried to extinguish it with her somewhat pathetic exhalation of breath. Her stupidity astounded Mephiles.

"Stupid girl! As if something as simple as a light exhalation of air could extinguish Solaris!" Mephiles sneered. He began to laugh in his sinister, chilling way, the harsh sound echoing eerily throughout Solaris' chamber. They thought they had destroyed him… they were dead wrong. And now… it was time for him to exact his revenge.


	2. 1: Double Tragedy

**A/N: Hi readers! Here's chapter 1.:)**

**Be warned that there are a total of four deaths in this chapter (Two of the four being majors in the Sonic series, one being semi-major and the last having next to no value) and one of them is pretty gory, so if that kind of thing makes you squeemish, then it's probably best if you look for somthing else to read. Reviews are nice and highly appreciated, so if you can, please leave me one so I know where I can improve my writing. If the readers are happy then I'm ecstatic.:)**

**Now without further ado, please enjoy!**

* * *

**The Darkness Returns**

**Double Tragedy**

One month later…

Afternoon

Soleanna Forest

"Sonic!"

The cobalt hedgehog turned at the sound of his name coming from a familiar voice and he grinned at the approaching figure. "Hey Tails! What's up?"

Tails skidded to a halt in front of his friend, panting and wheezing with an extremely worried look on his face. Sonic felt a chill go up his spine. Something was wrong, deathly wrong.

"S-Sonic… b-bad news…! Come back… to Soleanna! 's urgent!" the yellow twin tailed fox huffed out, looking like he was about to pass out at any given moment. Sonic nodded and dashed away full speed towards the seaside town, his feelings of unease growing.

* * *

As soon as he entered the town, Sonic noticed what seemed to be the entire of Soleanna's residents gathered in the town square. He speed walked towards the crowd, his ears noting the people's sobs and hushed murmurings the closer he came. One phrase in particular continually jumped out at him. _She's dead. Princess Elise is dead._

Sonic stopped and his lower lip trembled. "No…" he whispered, eyes becoming moist. He ran a gloved hand over them, dislodging a few small teardrops, then began to edge his way to the front of the crowd. He caught sight of the Mayor of Soleanna and a huddle of servants weeping behind him atop the castle's stone steps. "What happened?" Sonic asked the mayor as he approached.

The old man blew his nose loudly with a white handkerchief and stared at the cobalt hedgehog with red tear filled eyes. "Princess Elise is dead." He sniffled, swiping his eyes on his suit sleeve. Sonic's fists clenched. So it was true.

"Show me." He whispered, restraining from crying. The mayor shifted uncomfortably.

"Are you quite sure?"

Sonic frowned, "Of course. Why?"

Again, the mayor shifted. "Because the manner in which she died was… horrific."

Sonic swallowed thickly. "Show me anyway."

* * *

"Not much longer."

Sonic silently trailed behind the mayor. _She's dead. The princess is dead._

The townspeople's words echoed through his skull and he closed his eyes, willing them away like a nightmare.

"We're here."

Sonic reopened his eyes and stared at the beautiful white door with elegant swirls and fleur de lis' carved into its surface. The mayor stared down at Sonic, seeming to say that it was not too late to turn back. Sonic's brow furrowed and he placed a hand over the shiny golden doorknob. He refused to chicken out. He gave the mayor a quick glance, and then twisted the knob, opening the door. It silently swung open on well oiled hinges, revealing to Sonic the horror he had been warned about.

The formerly white walls at the back of Princess Elise's room had bright crimson messily sprayed all over them. At the very back wall was her four poster bed. From behind its gossamer curtain Sonic could make out more red. Hesitantly he entered the threshold of the room and made his way towards the bed. Something in the corner opposite Elise's bed caught his attention so he stopped and slowly turned to look at it.

He nearly vomited.

Sprawled in the corner was Elise's maid. The poor girl was an absolute mess. One of her legs was twisted at an odd angle, splintered bone peeking through her kneecap, her entrails were spilling from her stomach and pooling at her legs like a sick pile of spaghetti and her head was thrown back against the wall, the plaster around it cracked and some unnameable goo trailing from it. Her face was horribly scratched and one of her eyes was missing. She was completely drenched in blood.

Sonic quickly turned away from the mutilated maid and headed for the bed, determined to get this over with, despite his fear and disgust. With shaking hands, he pulled aside the drapes surrounding the bed, which had ragged claw marks through the middle of them, and saw what used to be Elise.

The limp figure lying before Sonic was drenched in her own blood, some of which still trickled, fresh from her wounds and onto the bed. All over her body, jagged, crystal like growths jutted out from her skin. One of them looked like it had been snapped off; this was jammed between her glazed, unseeing eyes. Sonic hastily backed away, feeling bile push its way up his throat.

"Isn't it terrible?" the mayor whispered behind him, sadly.

"W-what did… this?" Sonic choked out, terrified eyes flicking between Elise and her maid.

"Let us get out of here first… then I shall tell you all that we know so far." The mayor suggested, placing a hand on Sonic's shoulder. The hedgehog nodded and hastily followed him out the door, eager to leave behind Elise and her butchered maid.

* * *

"This all started about a week ago, when the princess suddenly become ill." The mayor began, slowly stirring his tea. "Her temperature would skyrocket one minute, only to plummet down the next. She also suffered terrible coughing fits to the point that blood came out."

Sonic stared silently into the untouched glass of water he held in his hands.

"During that week, she had never opened her eyes once, so it was a great joy when she finally did." The mayor smiled slightly as he remembered the small moment of joy. His face quickly became sombre again as he continued his tale. "However, last night when Alyssa, Princess Elise's maid, came to check up on her… this tragedy began to unfold.

"The details of what happened next are a mystery but from what we know, the entire castle was woken by Alyssa's screams. Following the screams was a god awful crack… we believe that was when she died."

The image of Alyssa's mutilated body flashed through Sonic's mind and he squeezed his eyes shut, feeling sick again. The mayor continued, oblivious to the hedgehog's discomfort.

"We, that is, the servants and I, rushed to Princess Elise's aid, just as she herself began to scream. Upon entering her room, we were in time to see those… _horrendous _crystals ripping through her skin." The old man shuddered. "A couple of the servants went to check on Alyssa, while the rest of us rushed to the Princess. She… _smirked _up at us and… r-ripped of one of the crystals clean off. Before we realised what was happening, she had plunged it into her… head."

Sonic bowed his head, tears pattering silently from his eyes and into the glass of water. "Poor Elise…" he murmured, feeling disturbed. The hedgehog and the mayor sat in silence for a while, images of the Princess and her maid's death flashing through their heads until Sonic broke the silence. "So... have you got any other clues about… _'that'_?" he asked, reluctant to say 'Elise's death'. The old man removed his glasses from his face, polishing them with his suit sleeve. "Well… there was… something odd."

Sonic leaned forward intently.

"When the Princess… smirked at us, her eyes were different."

"How so?" Sonic asked.

"They were a muddy green, and her pupils were nothing more than little slits."

* * *

Hours later…

Night

Streets of Soleanna

Sonic trudged down the lamp lit streets of Soleanna, arms crossed and head down. The events of the afternoon swirled like fog through his mind, causing him to flinch. _She's dead. Princess Elise is dead. _The villager's voices echoed dully in his head. "I know…" Sonic whispered to the stars. The shining spots in the sky sparkled back at him coldly, making him feel alone and insignificant.

Sighing, he continued on his way. _When the princess … smirked at us, her eyes were different. They were a muddy green, and her pupils were nothing more than little slits. _Sonic frowned. "Green eyes… slitted pupils…" he murmured to himself. When nothing clicked, he sighed irritably and ran a hand through his quills. The image of Elise with the dark crystals that had ripped through her skin flashed through Sonic's mind, making him stop. "Green eyes… slit pupils… dark crystals…" Again, nothing clicked. Frustrated, Sonic grit his teeth. "Damn it!" he yelled, pounding his fist against a building. He instantly regretted it when his hand throbbed painfully. He hissed and clutched it to his chest, a few tears falling. "Damn… it!" he sobbed, out of the pain of losing his friend, along with the agonising throb of his hand. As he sulked, he failed to notice the lurching figure that slowly approached him from the shadows.

* * *

Uneven footsteps and ragged breathing reached Sonic's ears, instantly jerking him into alertness. He looked up to see a young woman standing under a nearby streetlamp, her head down in what appeared to Sonic as sadness. He recognised her as one of the servants from the castle, but a chill down his spine told him of danger. Suddenly, the girl began to shudder uncontrollably. Seeing that something was wrong with her, Sonic threw all caution to the wind and approached the girl. "Hey! You ok?"

When he came within the lamp light, the girl suddenly threw her head back, eyes wide, and began to choke harshly. "Hey! Snap out of it!" Sonic cried, panicking at her pained spasms. The girl's eyes rolled up into her skull and blood began to ooze from her mouth and nose in thin trails. The feeling of danger screamed at Sonic to run, but he ignored it. This girl was in trouble and it wasn't in his nature to leave others suffering, so he rushed towards her. Sonic gripped her arms tightly, giving her a slight shake. "Hey! Get a grip!"

A drop of blood pattered on his nose and he hastily shook his head to remove it. Once it was gone, he continued trying to get the girl to respond. "What's wrong? If you tell me then I may be able to help you!" he said, voice beginning to rise with fear. Suddenly the servant girl froze. Her head was thrown all the way back and she was rigid as a statue.

"A-are you ok?" Sonic asked, head ringing from the danger bell in his head that screamed at him to run. The girl shivered once and Sonic felt the tiniest bit relieved. "Are you ok?" he repeated, considerably calmer than the first time he'd asked her. Silence.

Sonic was beginning to worry if the girl had died on her feet when she croaked, "N-no… it… hurts."

Sonic sighed lightly, relieved that the girl was alive. "Ok, tell me where it hurts." He instructed.

"E…very…where…" she gasped, shuddering again. Sonic licked dry lips, making a quick decision. "Ok. I'll take you to a doctor." He began to grab her around the waist and under her knees when her hands suddenly wrapped around him like snakes. Sonic grunted in surprise and began to squirm fearfully, until he realised that she was just hugging him. "Thank… you…" she whispered in his ear. Sonic smiled and petted her back, "Eh, no prob-"

One of the girl's arms quickly unwrapped itself and plunged into his stomach.

"W-wha?" Sonic coughed. The girl began to chuckle darkly.

"Hey! What's the meaning of-AAAARGH!" Sonic screamed as the girl twisted her arm inside of him. "My, my… doesn't this bring back memories…" she hissed in a harsher sounding voice tinged with dark amusement. "What're you… ngh… talking about?" Sonic demanded weakly.

"Your death, of course." The girl said sweetly, pulling back from sonic enough for him to see her eyes. His own widened in shock. _When the princess … smirked at us, her eyes were different. They were a muddy green, and her pupils were nothing more than slits. _

"You… those eyes!" the hedgehog panted.

She smirked at him. "Yes. The very eyes Princess Elise of Soleanna possessed before her untimely demise."

Sonic shook with rage. "Why did you do that… to... Elise, you… monster? Isn't she your… Princess?"

The girl scoffed, "You actually think that I'm this lowly servant girl?" she asked, gesturing at herself. Sonic's eyes narrowed with confusion. What was she talking about?

The girl threw back her head and laughed heartily, "Oh, you are simply too stupid, hedgehog!"

She then ceased her laughter and leaned closer to him. "My name, my dear stupid hedgehog, is Mephiles the Dark. _I_ was the one who killed you in front of the Princess exactly one month ago."

Sonic's brow creased in confusion. Mephiles? He was sure he'd heard that name somewhere…

And then it finally clicked. After beating Solaris, Elise and his friends had told him of a strange dark hedgehog that had temporarily killed him. Parts of the hedgehog's body had been encased in a sharp dark crystal, he had no mouth or nose, his eyes had been red where they should have been white and his irises were a muddy green with slitted pupils.

Mephiles noted Sonic's face melt from confusion into recognition and smirked wider. "Ah good. You remember me now…"

Sonic shook with rage, "You… killed Elise!"

"Indeed I did. And now, you're next!"

* * *

Amy Rose hummed merrily as she made her way through the darkened streets of Soleanna. She'd heard that Sonic had returned and was eager to find him and express her profound love for him. Unfortunately, she'd heard nothing of Elise's death and had arrived too late in the night to hear anything from the townspeople so she had no clue as to the events that had transpired.

Amy stopped humming and peered at a nearby street lamp. A young woman and a hedgehog were embracing each other under the light of the lamp. She blushed at how adorable it seemed to her and giggled. As she looked back at the pair, she couldn't help but notice that something looked wrong. Amy squinted at them. Her eyes then widened.

"Are those… spikes?" she gasped aloud, already running towards the pair. As she came closer, she made out the familiar blue fur of her love interest, stained deep crimson.

"SONIC!" she screamed, running faster and stretching one hand out towards him.

Just as her hand touched his shoulder, a giant crystallised spike shot out at her, impaling her through the stomach and making her squeal. "Son-"

Another crystal stabbed her in the head, killing her instantly.

Mephiles snickered at the pink hedgehog's stupidity and began to exit the servant's body in a dark cloud of mist. "One hedgehog down… two to go." His disembodied voice stated gleefully. "Now… which one should I kill next?" he pondered, as he began floating over the ocean, away from the kingdom of Soleanna. "Hm… how about…"

* * *

**A/N: Heh. Mephy doesn't waste any time, does he?**

**If you liked this, have any writing advice or have any suggestions for later chapters then please review or P.M me. Thanks for reading!^O^**


	3. 2: Investigation

**A/N: Well... here's the second chapter, which contains two more deaths and a hint of Shadow/Rouge. **

**Realised that I kind of blundered with how the mayor (I think his name is Lord Regis...?) lives. A mayor living in the palace/castle? *facepalms***

**Oh well, it's only a minor detail that nobody could give two shits about but whatever... just thought I'd put it out there. **

**But enough of my rambling... go forth and read to your heart's content.:)**

* * *

**The Darkness Returns**

**Investigation**

Hours later…

Morning

Outskirts of Westopolis

Shadow the hedgehog lay under a large oak tree, crimson eyes flicking over the words of the newspaper in his hands again, still disbelieving. "It can't be…" he murmured. A shadow suddenly blotted out the sun.

"What can't be?" his partner in crime, Rouge the bat asked curiously. Shadow's eyes left the paper to stare up at her. Seeing the more serious than usual look in his eyes, the jewel thief stepped back and crossed her arms expectantly. Wordlessly he handed her the newspaper. She flicked it up noisily and began scanning the cover story. The title 'Gruesome Epidemic Kills Four, Sonic Counted Amongst the Deceased' practically leapt out of the page at her. "No way…" she murmured, reading the snippet of article. Shadow quietly watched Rouge read over the article, noticing her steadily becoming scared. Abruptly she threw the paper down, panting, with a small sheen of sweat on her forehead. "I-I don't believe it…" she whispered, sinking to her knees. "Not just Sonic… but Amy… and that Princess too."

Shadow glared up at the sun and said nothing as he pondered on the deaths of the faker, the faker's number one admirer and the faker's recently acquired human fan. The article had stated that the cause of death was multiple crystal like growths that had erupted from the skin, piercing vitals and killing immediately. His eyes narrowed. It was time for an investigation.

"Rouge, pull yourself together. We're going to Soleanna."

She sighed shakily and wobbled to her feet. Shadow stood up, holding out his arm for her in case she needed support. Rouge waved her hand at him dismissively, "I'll be fine, Shadz."

He shrugged, "We're going to Chaos Control there, anyway."

Rouge inwardly groaned at that. "Can't we catch a plane or something?" she suggested pleadingly, hoping to weasel her way out of the violent method of travel. Shadow shook his head. "Too slow. I want answers, and I want them within minutes, _not _hours."

Rouge sighed reluctantly as she held his arm. "Fine! You win this time."

Shadow smirked and fished out his green Chaos Emerald. "Chaos Control!"

* * *

Moments later…

Morning

Soleanna

Shadow landed gracefully on his feet with a small smile on his face due to the adrenaline of the Chaos Control. Rouge on the other hand leaned on his shoulder heavily; face green and fingers digging painfully into his arm. "I… hate… you…" she panted. Shadow snorted in response, and then began to scan the surrounding area. Behind them, he could see one of Soleanna's three bell towers. He looked up at the sky. Judging from the direction of the sun, he guessed that they were on the south side of the kingdom. "Come on Rouge." The hedgehog urged quietly. The bat grumbled but followed him.

* * *

Shadow and Rouge briskly climbed the steps of the castle, shoes quietly tapping and heels clicking loudly. Once at the huge wooden doors, shadow raised a fist and slammed it into the wood multiple times. "This is agent Shadow the hedgehog of G.U.N. Open up!" he yelled. Rouge rolled her eyes. _'Meat head…' _

Soon, one of the large doors opened and an elderly man that resembled a taller, somewhat thinner version of the Monopoly Man peered at the pair of G.U.N agents. "Oh, good day. What brings you here?"The mayor of Soleanna asked. Rouge whipped out her badge,

"I am agent Rouge of G.U.N, and this is my partner, Shadow." She said, gesturing at the grumpy black hedgehog. Recognition flickered in the old man's eyes when he saw Shadow and he moved aside, "Please, do come in."

The pair entered, eyes instantly taking in the sight of the elegance within. Rouge's eyes glittered mischievously as they settled on the decorative jewels that shone brilliantly at her, as though just begging for her to steal them. Shadow frowned at her, an action that went by unnoticed, as the captivated jewel thief stood, practically drooling at the sight of all the jewels.

"So, what can I do for you?" the Soleannan mayor asked, clasping his hands together.

"We came here to investigate the recent deaths that have occurred here." Shadow said coolly. The mayor's face immediately became pale. "Ah… o-of course…"

"We need any and all information regarding the deaths and would like to see the bodies if possible." The hedgehog continued, ignoring the distressed reaction of the old man, whose stutter became worse. "C-c-c-certainl-ly…" he choked, shaking hands reaching for a handkerchief. "P-please… take a-a-a seat."

* * *

Half an hour later…

Morning

Soleanna Morgue

"Over here." The coroner instructed, waving his hand over five misshapen lumps hidden under pure white sheets. Shadow nodded once to the man in acknowledgement, and then gripped the corner of the first sheet. He shared a quick glance with Rouge before ripping the blanket away.

The sight of the mutilated body of Alyssa the maid caused Shadow's crimson eyes to widen slightly in shock, and for Rouge to clamp her teeth over her fist so she didn't scream or vomit.

"Gruesome isn't it…" the coroner remarked flatly behind them. Shadow gave his head a light shake and began to examine the corpse's wounds. Her face was a mess of claw marks and an empty eye socket stared up at him. Her entrails had been messily shoved into her stomach, possibly to stop them from falling onto the floor of the morgue, and one of her legs sat twisted badly enough for bone to peek through.

"Head's split like a melon too."

Shadow whirled around to glare suspiciously at the coroner. The man shrugged, "Just telling you so you don't have to touch her."

Shadow grunted and threw the blanket back over the maid, moving on to the very next body. The sheet was thrown back and Princess Elise was revealed in all her blood and crystal covered glory. Shadow's frown deepened at the sight of the crystals and an uneasy feeling rolled over him.

He threw the blanket back over her and moved onto the next. When he removed the blanket, he froze at the sight it had concealed.

Sonic the hedgehog, dead. An arm sized hole in his stomach and several minor scratches peppering his body. Shadow involuntarily took a step back. It was true, the faker was dead. Rouge shuddered. What in the hell could have killed the 'fastest thing alive'?

Shadow violently threw the blanket back over Sonic and tore off the blanket covering the fourth casualty. Amy Rose lay still, her fur and dress darkened by the blood from the wounds created from the broken off crystals that protruded from her stomach and forehead. Shadow recovered her and strode away, gripping Rouge by the wrist. He didn't even need to see the last body to know it was in a similar state to Elise's. "We're done here." He grunted, dragging Rouge out of the morgue.

"Have a pleasant day!" the coroner called after them, amused. Shadow grit his teeth, resisting the urge to add a sixth body to the morgue's growing collection.

* * *

The hedgehog and bat stopped in front of the southern bell tower, shaking. Rouge gently pried Shadow's fingers away from her wrist and held his hand in both of her own. The pair stayed silent for a while, trapped in their memories of the bodies until Rouge spoke up. "… What now, Shadow?" she asked, wincing at the slight crack in her voice. The ultimate life form stared deeply into her aquamarine eyes. "We warn the others." He stated simply, whipping out his Chaos Emerald.

* * *

Hours later…

Afternoon

Outside Tails' house

Knuckles still couldn't believe it. Sonic, his friend and rival, was gone… forever. He grit his teeth and punched a nearby boulder. "Damn it all!" he snarled, pebbles flying from the former boulder. Tails cringed at the violent outburst. "Knuckles… maybe you should calm down a b-"

"Calm down? Sonic's dead and you're telling me to _calm down_?!" he screamed, looking like his head would explode from all the rage he was exuding. Suddenly Tails became just as angry.

"You think you're the only one who's upset?! Sonic was my friend too!" he screamed back, fur bristling. "Not just that. He was the firstfriend I ever made. The _first_!" tears fell from his baby blue eyes and he collapsed to his knees sobbing.

The anger immediately drained from Knuckles and he knelt down to Tails' level. "Hey… I'm sorry I blew up at you, Tails. I just… I just can't believe Sonic's… gone."

The fox sniffed and swiped at his eyes. "I-it's ok, Knux. I know. It's not your f-fault."

The echidna grit his teeth and looked down. "But if you hadn't gone to find me on Angel Island… then maybe Sonic wouldn't have died…" he whispered. Tails shook his head slowly.

"Sonic could have died, regardless if we were there or not. Besides, if I'd gone with him, _I _probably would have been killed too, and you'd have had no way of knowing."

Knuckles nodded. He didn't like it, but he could definitely see Tails' point. Noticing that he had driven the point home to the echidna, Tails got to his feet. "I'm… going to make us something to eat." He murmured, knowing well that neither of them had the appetite, yet wanted to do something to take his mind off of Sonic's death. Knuckles nodded and sat down where he was. "I'll stay out here for a while…"

Tails slowly trudged towards his house, too miserable to notice the dark figure that observed him from the trees.

Mephiles' muzzle creased into a smirk. _'This is much too easy…'_ he thought, evaporating into mist and following Tails into the house.

* * *

The young fox sniffled and opened the fridge in the corner, dragging out a pre-marinated chicken. Mephiles quickly floated to the roof, just managing to evade Tails' dejected gaze as he unceremoniously dropped the chicken on the counter. As the fox crouched to set the oven, Mephiles rushed towards him. _'You're mine now!'_

Tails choked in surprise as something sank into his back. Whatever it was felt _horrible_, like sinking into evil poisonous tar. And most of all painful. Excruciatingly so. A scream ripped its way out of his throat as the evil substance slowly sank into his back. A dark voice filled with malice echoed painfully in his head. _"Don't worry fox… you and your echidna friend will soon join that stupid blue hedgehog. In death!"_

The voice then laughed, the sound of it making glass daggers of pain stab at Tails' head. He screamed again, causing the voice's dark laughter to amplify and become more amused. The pain intensified and he screamed even louder.

* * *

"Tails! What's wrong?!" Knuckles yelled, slamming open the door and entering the kitchen. The young fox was slumped over the counter panting and shaking uncontrollably. Immediately he became worried. "Tails, talk to me!" he ordered, firmly shaking his shoulder. Tails coughed harshly, blood running from the corners of his mouth. "K-Knux…" he wheezed, clutching at the echidna's arm. Knuckles trembled as he stared into Tails' terrified eyes. "W-what Tails? What's wrong?"

"There's s-something in…" he began, but coughed out more blood before he could finish his sentence. "Tails!" Knuckles screamed, now well and truly frightened. The fox coughed and choked even more, body twitching and jerking violently as blood slowly trickled from his mouth and nose and his eyes rolled up into his head. Knuckles watched on, frozen in horror as his friend's spasming steadily became worse, as did the flow of blood from his mouth and nose. And then it stopped as abruptly as it had begun.

"T-Tails?" Knuckles whispered fearfully, afraid that if his voice rose any higher than that, he would send Tails into another pained spasm. At first nothing happened, but then the fox twitched slightly. Knuckles heaved a sigh of relief at the sign of life. "Thank god T-"

The fox's head snapped down to face him and Knuckles instantly recoiled. "W-what the-?!"

Tails grinned at him evilly, muddy green eyes glinting with dark amusement.

"Y-you're not Tails!" Knuckles choked, backing away. Tails chuckled and yanked a large knife from the counter. "Indeed I'm not." He confirmed, running his tongue up the knife's glinting surface. Knuckles' back bumped into the wall and he flinched. Tails chuckled again. "But don't fret echidna. You shall see both him and your blue friend in the afterlife soon enough!" as the last word left his mouth, Tails swung the knife at Knuckles.

* * *

Knuckles ducked and delivered a hard punch to Tails' stomach, making him keel over and cough up more blood. Knuckles flinched. _'Sorry Tails.' _He thought, sidestepping his possessed friend and backing up to the kitchen counter as Tails doubled over, coughing and choking harshly. Knuckles thought that he heard him wheeze out 'pathetic body' at one point but quickly dismissed the trivial thought when a violently shuddering Tails slowly stood up. The fox slowly lurched forward, head down and arms hanging limply at his sides.

After his third shuffling step forwards the knife fell from his hand, clattering noisily against the floor. Knuckles flinched but brought up his fists, ready for an attack.

Tails stopped when he was within arm's reach of Knuckles, head still bowed, effectively hiding his face. Knuckles became extremely tense as the seconds ticked by, his body remaining taunt in anticipation of an attack. Instead, Tails' threw his head back gagging, and eyes bugging out of their sockets. Knuckles remained fixed in place, watching in horrified fascination until Tails stopped gagging and collapsed to his knees wheezing.

Cautiously Knuckles crouched in front of him. "Tails?"

The fox turned frightened eyes to him, which flickered from slit-pupiled muddy green to their regular baby blue. "K-Knux…" he choked back, tears welling in his flickering eyes. "M-make it s-s-stop!"

Knuckles swallowed, "I… don't know h-"

"MAKE IT STOP!" Tails screamed, dark crystals shooting out from his body. Three of them pinned knuckles to the wall; two for each arm and one in his chest. Knuckles struggled weakly, attempting to fight off the dark embrace of death, but died within a matter of seconds.

* * *

Mephiles slipped out of Tails' corpse and reformed in front of Knuckles. "You fought valiantly echidna, yet you accomplished nothing but death." He sneered, turning and walking out the door.

"-trol!" a faint voice in the distance yelled. Mephiles stopped and cocked his head to the side.

"Shadow…" he murmured, rage bubbling like tar in his stomach as he realised the voice belonged to his most hated enemy. For a moment he considered killing him but then dismissed the notion. It would be much more fun to kill off the rest of his friends first, let him taste the agony of losing everything. Mephiles' muzzle creased into a sneer as he dissipated into mist. Yes… he'd save him for last. That would make his revenge that much sweeter.

* * *

**A/N: Gee... I'm awfully nasty aren't I? Killing off sweet innocent Tails (One of my favourite characters I might add) in just the second chapter. Hmm... who's next on the chopping block? **

**On a somewhat lighter note... big shoutout to my first reviewer Lordoftheghostking28!^O^**

**I hope that you found this chapter as epic as the first.:)**

**And remember readers... reviews will tell me that this story is loved and therefore, more chapters shall be uploaded for your reading pleasure.**


	4. 3: Curiosity Kills

**A/N: G'day readers! Long time no see!8D**

**Not really, but whatever...**

**Originally, this chapter didn't exist, but I thought that if I didn't create it, there might be some confusion. So now you lovely readers have an extra chapter to read (Yay!). **

**I was kind of in a hurry to finish typing this chapter last night so if it seems rushed towards the end... you'll know why. Also, did anyone notice the small and incredibly lame joke in the last chapter? I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't...**

**Regarding one of my reviews...**

**I'm terribly sorry Duskzilla but I won't be killing off Sally Acorn in this fic. The reason being that I'm strictly following the videogame storyline. However... I _may_ just write a separate fic involving Mephiles killing her, maybe even the other Freedom Fighters... **

**Now without further ado... read on readers!^^**

* * *

**The Darkness Returns**

**Curiosity Kills**

One day later…

Morning

Chaotix Detective Agency, Vector's office

Vector the crocodile reclined leisurely in his padded office chair, crossed feet tapping and jerking about on his desk to the rhythm of the obnoxiously loud rock music escaping his headphones. He hummed along in a gravelly off-key voice which, after about five seconds, began to grate on the other occupant of the room's nerves.

Espio opened his mouth to express his displeasure at having his meditation interrupted by his boss' bad singing but the sudden appearance of a small flying object, which burst through the office door screaming in a high pitched voice, cut him off.

"Vector!"

"Woah!" the crocodile yelped, jerking backwards in his chair at this unexpected new arrival. Unfortunately, he jerked back with so much force that not even his wildly flailing arms could stop his fall, so he landed on his head with a large thump. The small flying object, a bee by the name of Charmy, ignored the fall of his boss and buzzed anxiously around the desk, a rolled up newspaper clenched tightly in one gloved fist. Espio noted the distressed look on the face of the six year old and experienced a dark and uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. Fear.

"Charmy, what in the world are you doing?!" an irritated Vector snapped at the bee as he rose from behind the desk, rubbing at his tender head. The bee made to talk but only a small sob wrenched itself from his throat. Both Vector and Espio immediately stiffened.

'_Uh oh… this can't be good…' _the crocodile thought with a nervous swallow.

"Charmy… what's that newspaper?" Espio asked as calmly as he could manage with his barely suppressed anxiety. Vector, on both impulse and habit asked, "You didn't steal it did you?"

Charmy blinked, dumbfounded, for two seconds before giving his head a quick shake. Vector nodded with a pleased smile. "Good. Now… can I have a look at it?"

With shaking hands, the bee handed the newspaper to his boss, who muttered a small thanks as he sat back in his chair and unrolled the newspaper.

It took a full minute for what Vector was seeing to fully process and when it finally did, his eyes widened in an almost comical way. "… Can't be…" he murmured, gold eyes quickly rereading the inked words stamped to the paper. Sure enough, the obnoxiously bold headline 'Mysterious Epidemic Kills Hero' remained the same, as did the colour picture showing Sonic's trademark red and white sneakers peeking out from under a crisp white sheet; no matter how many times Vector looked over them.

"Vector?" Espio spoke up, worried by the expression on the face of his boss and friend. The crocodile quickly waved a hand in a gesture of silence and Espio promptly snapped his mouth shut. After scanning the headline and picture a couple more times, Vector read the small paragraph underneath.

'_Disaster struck two days ago in the 'Water Capital' Soleanna when an unknown epidemic with gruesome side-effects made itself known, panicking the citizens to no end. This is not a big surprise, considering the unknown disease killed five in just one day. Counted among the victims are Princess Elise the Third and Sonic the hedgehog. _

_The death of the long time hero and protector in particular has been a massive shock to all, leaving many to question their safety now that he is gone. More shocking were the deaths of the 'Blue Blur's' closest friends, Miles 'Tails' Prower the fox and Knuckles the echidna, which occurred a mere day after his own in the young fox's own house. _

_The source of this disease is still unknown but it is advised that everyone should check for symptoms, and receive medical attention if these symptoms are found.'_

Vector reread the paragraph three more times to let the words sink in then flicked to page five, where there was a more extensive report with details of the deaths, who would take over Soleanna now that its last living monarch had died, and the mysteryof the unknown disease with many theories of its origin.

The whole story of the epidemic was spread over two and a half pages, with the last half page having the portraits of the five victims as well as a small box in the corner with details about the disease such as how to spot the symptoms and what to do if any are found.

Vector slowly lowered the paper with quivering hands. "This… this isn't… Sonic and the others can't be…"

"What, Vector?" Espio asked, somewhat annoyed and impatient that the crocodile hadn't relinquished the newspaper to him or even told the chameleon what he was babbling about.

Vector slumped forward and rubbed a gloved palm over his eyes. "Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy are dead…" he said hoarsely. Espio's eyes flew wide open and his jaw dropped.

"Wh-? Impossible!" He exclaimed, indignant at first. "T-they couldn't have… it's just not… possible…" he continued, albeit with no faith in his words, knowing that his boss' words were true.

Vector dragged his hand over his eyes again. "Yeah, well… it happened. The evidence is here," he sighed, tossing the newspaper at Espio's feet, "cold and hard as a genuine diamond…"

The chameleon stared hard at the cover picture, fear and disbelief etched onto his face.

The photograph of Sonic's sneakers peering out from under the white morgue blanket remained the same, no matter how long Espio stared so he kicked it away, sending pages flying. Charmy jerked at the sudden violent action but Vector ignored it, staring blankly at the surface of his desk.

A heavy and depressing silence descended over the three Chaotix as various thoughts of their dead friends and dark emotions swirled through their minds.

Charmy was the first to recover his voice and he immediately asked, "What're we gonna do now, Vector?"

Espio's eyes flicked up to stare intensely at the sullen crocodile. He too wanted to learn of their proposed course of action.

Vector was silent for a moment before he slowly pushed out his chair. "We're detectives…" he said flatly. Charmy cocked his head to the side and Espio blinked. The crocodile suddenly flashed his subordinates a toothy grin. "We investigate!"

* * *

Hours later

Afternoon

Tails' house

Mephiles sighed with aggravation as the last of the reporters left the house of the dead fox. Slowly, he emerged from the shadow of the fridge, absently flexing his hands.

He had stayed at the house, expecting the arrival of more of the blue hedgehog's friends… instead he was greeted by some bumbling human journalist, probably looking to interview the fox on the death of his friend. Needless to say, initially both Mephiles and the journalist were surprised at each other's presence, neither moving once they locked eyes.

Eventually, the man's had flicked to a spot somewhere behind Mephiles (He later learnt that the man had been eyeing a bloody footprint which he had created by stepping through the blood of the fox so many times.) and then he had turned tail and started to run. Without thinking, Mephiles had tackled the human and snapped his neck. After that he spent about five minutes staring at the dead man's lifeless eyes, wondering what he should do next.

After those five minutes transpired, he formed a portal to a random timeline and tossed the body through, uncaring whether or not he scared whoever was unlucky enough to be caught under the portal's (and the body that it transported) trajectory. That deed done, he re-entered the house and took his previous position in front of the kitchen window to keep a lookout for further intruders.

Hours had passed by, with each accompanied by humans. At first it was one or two more of the journalist type, but as time ticked on, there had been arrivals of up to five or six uniformed humans.

While the journalists had been armed with cameras and notepads, these humans carried more intriguing items such as firearms and some type of metal cuffs connected by a thin chain as well as other very interesting pieces of technology.

The first round of uniformed humans had stormed the house, poking their small firearms around cautiously and Mephiles had wondered if they knew that he was hiding and watching them from within the shadows. As time passed by though, he realised that they had only been doing that as a precaution and so he relaxed somewhat. More time passed, and with it came more uniformed humans. These humans sported rubber gloves and didn't seem to mind poking and prodding at the dead fox and echidna.

At one point, Mephiles had used the shadows to manipulate the dead pair, making them twitch or jerk slightly when only one human was observing them, receiving mild amusement from their terrified reactions. Eventually though he grew bored of this and decided to merely observe the humans as they worked and that in itself was interesting enough for him.

They flitted about, carrying small brushes and little plastic containers filled with some type of powder. This powder was coated over specific spots and objects, followed by the brush being lightly dusted over these powder covered areas. Apparently, the idea was for the powder to pick up anything undetectable to the naked eye; although how this was supposed to help the humans with their investigation was completely beyond Mephiles.

There were more uniformed humans outside, leaning against white and black cars with red and blue lights attached to the tops of them, quietly conversing amongst themselves but he mostly ignored them because they weren't doing anything productive.

But moving on to the present time… the uniformed humans seemed to be calling it a day, packing up their equipment and ushering stray journalists away, and for this, he was grateful.

Mephiles leaned back against the fridge and sighed deeply. _'No luck so far today… perhaps I should just come back tomorrow...'_

His eyes moved to stare out the window, noting that the scenery was faintly tinted with orange light. He hummed lightly. Well, it certainly wouldn't kill _him _if he chose to stick around.

The thought made him chuckle.

Absently, he trailed a finger in small lazy circles over the smooth surface of the fridge. "Perhaps I should stick around until nightfall…" he mused aloud, allowing the slow circles to gradually grow bigger. "It might prove to be a fruitful decision…"

'_Not to mention that I haven't the slightest clue on where Shadow is…'_

The thought made him sigh irritably.

If someone didn't come by soon, he would have to wander around like a moron, searching high and low for his hated enemy. This of course begged the question: What were he to do if he was unable to find Shadow?

"No!" he hissed aloud, "I _will _find him. And when I do… he will die… _painfully_!"

A harsh grating screech made itself known, and Mephiles immediately stared down at his hand. It was crystallised.

Mephiles cocked his head to the side. His aggressive train of thought must have been the cause of his transformation.

Mentally he shrugged. It didn't matter at this point, as there were no humans around and it seemed that none of the blue hedgehog's friends would show up.

Absently, he tapped his pointed fingers over the fridge's surface, each tap clicking slightly from the contact. He had no clue as to how much time passed before he was aware of the sound of approaching voices.

His ears perked and if he had a mouth to grin with, it would have been equivalent to the Cheshire cat's. "Ah… finally… some mild entertainment!"

* * *

"Are we there yet?" Charmy asked for probably the hundred and eighty-seventh time since the Chaotix left their detective agency in search of information regarding the deaths of their friends. "No we aren't!" Vector snapped, swatting at the bee. "And if you ask one more time, we'll go back to the agency!"

Charmy pouted and buzzed ahead, grumbling about 'old people who aren't any fun', leaving Espio behind to listen to Vector griping about 'annoying brats with no patience'. The chameleon rolled his eyes. Both of them were acting childish.

Charmy suddenly buzzed back, looking extremely hyper. "Hey! I think I found Tails' house!" he exclaimed excitedly, pointing at the not so distant break in the tree line. Vector squinted and nodded once he could make out the shape of the fox's home. "Yep… that's gotta be it. Let's hurry it up boys; the sun's going down!"

The trio picked up the pace and were out of the forest and in front of the house within a minute. Once there, they took a moment to stare at the police tape that surrounded the perimeter of the house. Vector cracked his neck and strolled towards the front door, Espio and Charmy in tow.

* * *

Mephiles smirked as he watched the strange trio cautiously push open the door and peered inside. _'They don't look like much, but they'll do.' _

The crocodile strode through first, followed by the chameleon, with the little bee ending the precession. The chameleon immediately froze and his gold eyes flicked about.

"What's wrong, Espio?" the crocodile asked as he turned around to face his companion.

The chameleon, Espio, continued to look around edgily. "I sense… a terrible evil, all around us."

Mephiles was intrigued. _'So… he knows that I'm here. This should prove much more interesting than I originally thought.'_

The crocodile too began to glance around uneasily. "Yeah. I know what you mean. It feels mighty hinky around here, so let's make this quick."

The trio exchanged nods then made way for the kitchen. Mephiles quickly followed after them through the growing shadows, eager to see their frightened reactions before he killed them.

* * *

As soon as Vector poked his snout into Tails' kitchen he was overwhelmed by the scent of blood.

Granted, the whole house had smelt like that, but here, it was much more concentrated. As soon as he entered, he could see why.

A blood drenched Tails was slumped in front of the far wall with a multitude of dark jagged crystals jutting from his body. Three of these crystals had an equally limp Knuckles pinned to the wall.

Vector quickly backed up, almost knocking over Espio in his haste.

"Ow! Vector!"

He ignored the chameleon's annoyed exclamation, far too wrapped up in his fearful thoughts.

Reading about deaths in the newspaper had been a shock, but that was nothing compared to physically being in the same room as the corpses, with the stench of their blood burning at his nostrils and their bodies before his very eyes. It was almost too much to bear.

"Vector, what's up?" Charmy called from behind Espio.

The crocodile's head whipped around so fast that it was a wonder it didn't fly right off his shoulders. "Don't come in here Charmy!" he barked in a voice that was a lot harsher than was intended. At first the little bee was startled by his boss' tone, but he quickly recovered, glaring at Vector's wide scaly back. "Why not?!" he yelled, sounding extremely annoyed.

Vector whirled around to fully face the bee, almost knocking Espio off his feet with his tail in the process. "Because you're young and don't need that kind of mental trauma!" he yelled back.

"I was their friend too!" the bee argued, curling his little hands into fists as tears filled his eyes. "So you can't stop me!"

"Yes I can! I'm older and wiser than you! Not to mention,I'm your boss!" Vector snapped in reply.

The pair's bickering continued and Espio watched from the sideline, eyes flicking between the two as he tried to find some way to stop their arguing.

Just as he opened his mouth, a disturbing and highly painful sensation made itself known and whatever he was going to say was lost to his agonised scream.

* * *

As the chameleon continued to scream in pain, Mephiles quickly slipped into his body before he could be noticed by the now concerned bee and crocodile. Mephiles ignored their frantic yelling about the wellbeing of the chameleon and began to spread his substance throughout the reptile's bloodstream. This had proved to be the fastest method of gaining control of his victim's bodies so he employed it. As Mephiles worked on taking over the chameleon's body, he slipped into his subconsciousness. There was something that he needed the chameleon for…

It was dark all around him, but he didn't mind. And why would he? Darkness was his element after all. Mephiles stepped forward, slowly moving his head about. "Where could it be?" he wondered aloud, taking a few more slow steps forward. Moments worth of looking quickly paid off when he spied a small chest, covered in a faint gold light. He smirked his mouthless smirk and eagerly strode towards the object. However, once he was within a metre from the chest a giant metal wall laced with thin veins of purple that were the same hue as the chameleon slammed down in front of him, barring the way.

Mephiles cocked his head to the side. "It appears you have quite a strong amount of willpower, chameleon." He said, slit-pupiled eyes gazing at the obstruction with faint amusement. "However…"

Mephiles raised his left hand, forming a dark orb the size of an ostrich egg. "Willpower alone cannot stop me!"

The abomination hurled the orb at the wall, laughing as it hit the obstruction dead centre and made the whole thing explode into little fragments. Mephiles strode forwards eagerly towards the chest, still laughing. Once he was standing directly in front of the object, he hooked one crystallised claw under the lid's overhang and flicked it up.

At once he was blinded by brilliant golden light, which swirled around him in a miniature vortex.

* * *

Once the light faded, Mephiles saw that there was a small luminous orb sitting in the centre of the chest. He laughed triumphantly and plucked the orb out, holding it close to his face.

Within its depths, the faces of those known to the chameleon flashed by one after the other. With each passing face, Mephiles was imparted with a small amount of information regarding the face's owner.

The crocodile, the bee, an armadillo named Mighty, Sonic the idiotic blue hedgehog, Amy the equally stupid pink hedgehog, Shadow and the bat girl, a robotic version of Sonic and the egg shaped man who had created him, a small rabbit girl and a fat purple cat...

Mephiles smirked. He now knew what his next course of action would be after dealing with these three idiots.

* * *

"Espio! Espio! Wake up!" Vector yelled, frantically shaking his subordinate's shoulders.

The only response he got from the chameleon was more harsh coughing and spasming as well as the occasional pained cry.

"V-V-Vector, what's ha-appening?" Charmy sobbed, extremely distressed. Vector ceased shaking the unresponsive chameleon, slowly shaking his head. "I-I dunno… but I think he caught the disease that killed Sonic!"

Charmy whimpered. "I do-on't want Espio to d-die!"

"He won't!" Vector growled, even though he didn't believe in his words.

Espio went still.

Vector immediately feared the worst, and so did Charmy, if his loud wails were a clear enough indication. Then Espio's eyes snapped wide open.

* * *

The other two Chaotix were stunned to silence for a moment before Vector grinned. "See Charmy! I told you that he wouldn't-"

He then noticed his subordinate's green slit-pupiled eyes and the words froze in his throat.

He didn't even have enough time to scream as Espio lunged at himself and Charmy with an ungodly scream, crystals ripping out of his body in all directions.

* * *

**A/N: Yay, Mighty makes a cameo appearance!8D**

**I really enjoyed writing the first part of Mephiles' point of view... and I found it kind of cute (Wait... what?), particularly his curiosity towards the police. But that's just me...**

**The next chapter will have the meeting of Shadow and Mephiles, as well as some Shadow/Rouge fluff, but no immediate deaths. Well... none that are real or haven't already happened.**

**Thank you for reading!^^**


	5. 4: A Confronting Message

**A/N: Well, here's the fourth chapter. Expect to encounter many Shadow/Rouge moments, some swearing from the Ultimate Potty-Mouth and mind-fuck. I honestly don't know if what's ahead counts as mind-fuck but whatever...**

**Wow... five (and a half) reviews for one chapter... I'm touched.^^**

**Guest/anonymous: Don't worry, Blaze and Silver will be in here... somewhere. But for now, just a Silver cameo.**

**Shadougelover14: Here's the promised meeting between Shadow and Mephiles... not exactly a literal face to face confrontation but a confrontation nonetheless.**

**Lordoftheghostking28: *Mephiles (epic) laughter* None are safe from Mephiles' wrath! **

**Damn it! You're making me feel guilty for killing so many characters!_**

**Thanks again for your praise.^^**

**Chelly2k: Thank you, and you never know... you might be surprised...**

**Blevastator (the half review): Yes sister (who is hovering over me reading this) ... I know it's you, and I know you love the story (you've only told me fifty million times). Chicken, flower, egg, seed back at ya biotch!XD **

**Now, without further ado... read on, my readers!**

* * *

**The Darkness Returns**

**A Confronting Message**

One day later…

Night

G.U.N indoor pistol range

Rouge watched on dispassionately as Shadow fired more rounds at the already shredded paper target. His finger remaining glued to the trigger until no more bullets came out.

He tapped the trigger a couple of times, getting only a few dull clicks in response.

With an enraged snarl, he hurled the gun at the target; watching its barrel hit where the bullseye should have been. It then clattered noisily to the ground.

"… Throwing a fit isn't going to bring them back." Rouge remarked quietly.

Shadow whirled around to face her, teeth bared and crimson eyes burning with rage. She didn't flinch, instead wrapping him in her arms and resting her chin on his head. She could feel his body shuddering with barely suppressed rage so she squeezed him tighter.

"We need to destroy whatever keeps doing this…" Shadow hissed, clenching his fists. Rouge pulled away to stare into his eyes. "And we will. In time."

Shadow's left eye twitched with annoyance. "No! We need to do it now, while the trail's still-"

Rouge slapped him, and the sound echoed dully throughout the empty cement room.

Shadow's eyes widened in disbelief. "Rouge… what-?"

"Shadow! Look at me!" she ordered.

Silently, his crimson eyes scanned Rouge's face. "Now tell me… how do I look to you?"

He took in her puffy red eyes, dark at the bottom from lack of sleep, and overall dishevelled appearance. "You look crappy and tired as hell." He answered truthfully. Rouge nodded,

"Exactly my point. And if you had bothered to look at yourself in a mirror, you'd have noticed that you look just as crappy and tired as I do."

Shadow blinked. Now that she mentioned it… he did feel exhausted. And yet…

He shook his head in denial. "We don't have time to rest! More and more people are dying as we speak!"

"And how are you going to help them when you're so damn exhausted?" Rouge demanded. Shadow blinked, taken aback. "I-"

"No." Rouge interjected, "You're tired. I'm tired. End of story!"

"Rouge…"

"Will you just listen to me already?!" she yelled, roughly shaking him by the shoulders. "You. Need. To. Sleep!" she ground out, frustrated tears blurring her vision.

Shadow didn't move, allowing Rouge to keep shaking him until she slumped against him, sobbing. "They're gone. Sonic. Amy. Tails. Knuckie. And now that idiotic trio, the Chaotix! They're all gone!"

Shadow was unsure if Rouge was talking to him or if she was talking aloud.

Her sobs grew louder and he slowly wrapped his arms around her. "I'm sorry." He whispered, gently caressing her back. She gripped him tighter, burying her nose in his chest fur. "-not your f-f-fault…" her muffled voice told him. Shadow was quiet for a moment, ignoring the fact that Rouge was probably leaving his chest fur soaked with her tears and snot.

He sighed wearily. "Ok, Rouge. I think I'll… take you up on your offer of sleep."

She lifted her head to smile shakily up at him. "G-guess I w-wi-in this time, huh?" She hiccupped triumphantly. Shadow smirked, "I suppose so."

* * *

Minutes later…

Night

Shadow's quarters

Shadow silently nudged open the door with his foot and shifted Rouge in his arms for a better hold. The sleeping bat shifted slightly and one of her hands curled into his chest fur.

Shadow rolled his eyes as he entered his quarters, closing the door with his foot. Rouge shifted again and Shadow wondered what were to happen if he dropped her. He shook his head.

It wouldn't be a pretty sight; of that much he was certain.

Shadow confidently navigated his way to his bed despite the near darkness and gently set Rouge down. He frowned as he tried to uncurl her fingers from his chest fur. They refused to yield. "Stubborn little…" he grumbled under his breath before giving up. Defeated, he kicked off his shoes and pulled off his gloves before crawling in next her, throwing the blanket over both of them. He thought he caught her smirking in the corner of his eye but wasn't sure if his mind was playing tricks on him or not. He sighed and closed his eyes in preparation for sleep.

"Shadz…?"

He grudgingly opened one eye. "What, Rouge?"

"… Thanks for actually listening to me. For once."

He grunted and threw one arm around her, pressing her close. Then the bat and the hedgehog fell asleep.

* * *

_Shadow opened his eyes and was greeted by darkness. He blinked a couple of times and looked around. __**"What the-?" **__he asked aloud, startled by the loud echoing of his own voice. _

_The oily black surface that counted as the ground suddenly rippled below him like a stone had been tossed into water. He immediately glared at it with suspicion. _

_As he stared, he saw an image. It was undiscernible at first but became clearer the longer he stared. His eyes narrowed further._

* * *

_Sonic was shaking a girl's shoulders under a street lamp, looking incredibly frightened. His mouth moved frantically but Shadow couldn't hear any words being uttered. The girl suddenly became rigid. Sonic stared at her stunned for a few seconds before his mouth moved again. Nothing happened for a while. Then Sonic sighed, looking relieved. His mouth moved again and the girl shuddered. _

_Sonic's mouth moved some more and he started to pick the girl up in a princess hold. Suddenly the girl's arms snaked around his neck. Sonic panicked and squirmed around until he came to some sort of realization and stopped. The girl whispered in his ear and he smiled, petting her back. One of the girl's arms removed itself from around Sonic and plunged itself into his stomach. The 'ground' rippled again and the image was gone, replaced with another._

* * *

_Amy Rose walking, excitement in her movements. She suddenly stopped and stared at a nearby lamp post, a girl and a hedgehog embracing underneath its light. Amy vibrated and Shadow guessed she was giggling. She ceased her giggling and stared harder at the pair. _

_Her eyes flew wide open and her mouth moved before she zoomed straight for the hedgehog and girl. When she noticed that the hedgehog was Sonic she screamed. _

_Her hand touched his shoulder and a huge dark crystal shot out, impaling her in the stomach. She squirmed around and opened her mouth. Another crystal stabbed her, in the head this time, and silenced her. The 'ground' rippled once again._

* * *

_Knuckles was standing rigidly, fists raised, as a lurching Tails approached him, knife in hand. After the fox's third step he dropped the knife, making Knuckles flinch slightly. Tails stopped once he was within arm's reach of the red echidna. Nothing happened for a while and Knuckles remained extremely tense. Suddenly Tails collapsed, sides heaving. Knuckles cautiously knelt to his level, mouth moving. Tails stared at him with frightened tear-filled eyes which flickered constantly. _

_Tails' mouth moved, followed by Knuckles'. The fox screamed before Knuckles could finish whatever he was saying, dark crystals shooting through his golden fur and piercing Knuckles in the chest and both arms. The crystals pinned the echidna to the wall and he struggled briefly before ceasing to move at all. The image rippled and was, of course, replaced with another._

* * *

_The Chaotix appeared to be in the midst of an argument, as evidenced by their tense body language and rage filled expressions. _

_Vector yelled at Charmy who yelled back, and so forth. _

_Espio opened his mouth, undoubtedly to break up the argument, but screamed instead. _

_Vector and Charmy immediately stopped arguing and rushed over, mouths moving frantically. Espio opened his own mouth to talk, instead coughing up blood. The other two Chaotix froze, looking extremely frightened. _

_Nothing happened for a while besides Vector frantically shaking the unresponsive chameleon. Suddenly Espio's eyes snapped open and he screamed, lunging at his partners, crystals ripping out of his body in all directions. _

* * *

_The image rippled again but this time no other pictures showed themselves. Shadow remained staring at the water. __**"What the hell was that?" **__he wondered aloud in his echoing voice. His only answer was deafening silence. _

_Irritated, Shadow turned and walked away, heading for a cone of light. As he approached he noticed a shadowy figure standing in the centre of it. _

"_**Hey!" **__he called out, hoping to catch their attention so he could milk them for information. _

_The figure slowly turned to face him, features somehow obscured in darkness. Shadow's spine crawled and his quills bristled. Whoever it was exuded a dangerous chilling aura. _

_One of the figure's arms lifted and Shadow tensed, ready for an incoming attack. Instead, the figure's shadowy arm swept to the left, one finger pointing in that direction. Shadow's eyes darted at the direction the figure was pointing at, noticing another cone of light. His eyes quickly flicked back to the figure who hadn't moved an inch. Shadow glared at the figure and shook his head. _

_He didn't trust it. _

_The figure remained in the same position, finger still pointing at the cone of light. Again he shook his head in refusal. Still, the figure remained in the same maddening position until a frustrated Shadow threw his hands in the air. __**"Fine!" **__he snarled, storming over to the new cone of light._

* * *

_When he approached the light, Shadow could see yet another shadowy figure in its centre. He grit his teeth and stomped over. _

_Unlike the last figure, this one's features became defined the closer he came. Once he was ten steps away from the cone of light, he paused and squinted slightly with disbelief, wondering if who he saw before him was an illusion. __**"Maria?"**_

_The blonde human girl's head snapped around to face him, fear in her eyes. __**"S-Shadow?!"**_

_An intense wave of emotions hit Shadow at seeing the girl who had died to help him escape the ARK and tears welled in his eyes. __**"Maria… it is you…" **__he whispered. The girl's face lit with recognition and happiness. They remained silent for a moment, taking in each other's presence. Suddenly Maria's face became frightened, her eyes locked firmly on something behind him. _

_Shadow whirled around to face whatever horror was creeping up behind him and his eyes were greeted with… nothing. _

_Maria screamed._

* * *

_Shadow immediately turned around again to see what was wrong and froze. _

_The girl laid face down, a red blossom slowly spreading from a small hole in her back. _

"_**Maria!" **__Shadow screamed, running into the light to help her. As soon as he entered the light she disappeared, leaving behind a bloody puddle which for some unknown reason didn't sink into the liquid substance of the 'ground'. _

_Shadow began to sink to his knees in the bloody puddle, tears falling silently. He'd failed to save her… again. _

_A dark amused chuckle echoed around him, and his head immediately snapped up. _

_His eyes frantically scanned the darkness outside the cone of light but he couldn't see anything. __**"Show yourself!" **__he snarled. _

_More chuckling. _

_It seemed to coming from everywhere. And yet, he still couldn't see its owner. _

_He slammed a fist into the blood puddle. _

"_**DAMN IT!" **__he screamed; proceeding to pound both of his fists repeatedly in the blood and make it spray everywhere. _

"… _**Shadz…"**_

_His ears twitched at the familiar voice delivering the equally familiar nickname. __**"Rouge?"**_

"_**Why… are you hurting me…?" **__her voice whispered hoarsely. Shadow frowned in confusion._

"_**I'm not-"**__ he looked down and abruptly stopped speaking. _

_The wide eyed jewel thief lay under him drenched in blood. __**"W-what?!" **__Shadow choked, disbelieving. Rouge's shaking lips parted and she whispered in a barely audible voice, __**"Please… stop hurting me… Shadow…"**_

_He fell backwards and quickly scooted away from her, panting heavily. In his haste his hand slipped on something and his frightened eyes instantly flitted to look at it. _

_Nothing. Just his hand. His blood soaked hand. _

_He opened his mouth to scream but only made a small whimper. The laughter echoed again, sounding much more amused. Shadow scrambled to his feet and whirled around in frantic circles, seeking out the laughter's origin. After a few seconds of aimless spinning he stopped, panting, in the direction Rouge was. _

_She was gone. And the blood puddle was bigger. _

_He trembled. When would it end? _

_The 'ground' beneath him suddenly disappeared and he fell into what looked to be a much more intense darkness._

* * *

_It felt like he had plunged into water. Freezing arctic water. But it was thicker and restricted his movements, like glue that hadn't quite set. Not to mention the darkness that smothered him on all sides. The laughter echoed around him and he resisted the urge to curl into a ball. __**"Fuck off…" **__he hissed, echoing voice distorted like he was talking underwater. His tormentor snickered and Shadow ground his teeth. He swore that when he found whoever was laughing at him he was going to beat the ever-loving crap out of them! _

_All around him the darkness rippled and he was unsure of where he should direct his focus. Wherever he directed his eyes there were images forming. _

_Shadow's eyes shifted left. A giant image of Sonic being murdered by the girl he had been trying to help. _

_His eyes shifted right. Another giant image, this time of Princess Elise, crystals erupting from her body. Eyes to the front. Crystals ripping out of Espio as he lunged at his fellow Chaotix. Eyes above. Amy being impaled in the head. Below. Crystals shooting out of Tails, pinning Knuckles to the wall. _

_Everywhere Shadow directed his eyes there were death scenes. _

"_**ENOUGH!" **__he yelled, sick of seeing the same images being shown repeatedly. The images rippled into darkness again. _

_Shadow snorted softly. At least the images were gone… for now. _

_A soft light began to glow below him, instantly catching his eye. Shadow peered down and came face to face with Sonic._

* * *

_Shadow's eyes widened in disbelief. The bloodied Sonic below him mirrored his surprise. Quickly composing himself, Shadow glared down at the blue hedgehog, another action which he mirrored. __**"What the hell, faker?" **_

_Sonic's mouth moved the same way Shadow's did and both hedgehogs narrowed their eyes at each other. _

_Shadow blinked. So did Sonic. _

_Shadow smirked knowingly. __**"Ah… I see now. You're pretending to be my reflection."**_

_Sonic grinned up at him, eyes glinting. Shadow glared down at him in response. _

_Sonic rippled violently and was replaced by another bloodied hedgehog. _

"_**So now you're posing as Silver?"**_

_Silver poked his tongue out at him and Shadow bared his teeth. __**"Enough of your crap! Just make your point and be done with it!"**_

_Silver made a mock scared face at him and pretended to cringe. Shadow's fists clenched. _

_He was reaching the limit of his patience, and this stupid changing reflection was severely testing that limit. Silver rippled and was replaced by a carbon copy of Shadow himself, only it was drenched in blood. Both Shadow's crossed their arms. One was annoyed, the other was sneering. _

_Shadow tapped a foot irately over his reflection's face. __**"Well?" **__he prompted it, removing his foot from its face. The reflection pointed up and Shadow dragged his eyes to look at the 'sky'. _

* * *

_A slowly spinning giant crystal ball hang suspended, its core glowing softly. Shadow squinted and frowned. _

_A tiny white flame flickered within the crystal ball, quickly becoming a roaring white mass that clawed at its container. A wave of darkness then washed over the flame and extinguished it. _

_The darkness inside the crystal ball dissipated leaving behind the image of Solaris being defeated by three familiar hedgehogs. The image faded and the three hedgehogs glared defiantly at the outside of the crystal ball. On the left was Sonic, Silver was on the right and Shadow himself was in the middle. _

_Sonic's eyes suddenly widened and blood trailed from his mouth. _

_The Shadow and Silver inside the crystal ball turned to look at him fearfully. Sonic fell into a puddle of darkness which greedily swallowed him. _

_As the two remaining hedgehogs panicked at the loss of the third, a pair of silhouetted hands plucked both of them up and brought them to a similarly silhouetted face. They struggled violently until the hands crushed them into bloody pulps. A pair of eyes slowly opened and stared down unblinkingly at Shadow. He gasped. _

"_**Red sclera… and those green slit-pupiled eyes! You're-"**_

_The silhouette suddenly flung the crushed bodies of himself and Silver at the crystal ball, staining the area bright crimson. Shadow flinched, disgusted. _

_Most of the blood oozed slowly down the surface of the crystal ball, while other parts slid faster or dropped away altogether until all that was left was a small sentence which Shadow read aloud._

"_**The Darkness is coming…"**_

"_**Indeed it is."**_

_Shadow's head snapped down to stare at the ever-changing reflection. __**"So… it is you." **__Shadow hissed, eyes slitting with recognition and anger. The mouthless muzzle of his 'reflection' creased into a smirk. __**"Yes… it is I." **__Mephiles replied silkily, giving Shadow a mocking bow, causing the Ultimate Life form's chest to rumble with a deep growl. _

_Mephiles ignored the hostile noise and tapped a gloved finger to his muzzle in a thinking pose. __**"Hmm… I wonder who will be the next to perish." **__He mused, eyes glinting maliciously. _

_Shadow froze, unaware that his muzzle had become remarkably paler. Mephiles noticed however, and took sick pleasure in his discomfort, proceeding to fuel it. __**"Hmm… I really do wonder… Who. Will. Die. Next?" **__The darkness born creature continued, strongly emphasizing his last four words. _

_Shadow trembled, clenching and unclenching his fists. _

_Mephiles hummed again, pacing slowly and tapping his finger lightly against his muzzle. __**"Such a shame that there are already so few left… oh well. I'm sure that one of them could offer me some… **_**entertainment**_**." **__Mephiles ceased pacing to settle his piercing eyes on Shadow's, their dark depths glittering. __**"Perhaps your… **_**bat**_** friend will suffice…"**_

_Feelings of rage and the need to protect the jewel thief crashed over Shadow like a tidal wave and he finally regained his voice. __**"Don't you **_**dare **_**lay a fucking hand on Rouge!" **__he snarled, fur bristling. Mephiles laughed. __**"Ah the sentiment…! It is enough to make one want to vomit."**_

_Shadow bared his teeth in a snarl and ground out, __**"I mean it. You touch her and I will personally dismember you and feed you the limbs!"**_

_One of Mephiles' eye ridges rose and his voice took an amused edge. __**"Oh? And how will you accomplish such an act when I do not possess a mouth?"**_

"_**I have my ways…" **__Shadow hissed, envisioning creating Mephiles a mouth via firearms or with a knife; preferably a rusty one with extremely jagged edges. _

_Mephiles chuckled. __**"Oh I'm sure that you do Shadow."**_

_The ultimate life form didn't respond, simply letting his crimson eyes burn lasers into Mephiles' forehead. The mouthless hedgehog cocked his head at Shadow and sighed with exaggerated sadness. __**"Oh dear. It appears that I am running out of time. Such a shame too. I was rather enjoying our time together."**_

_As the abomination spoke, the surrounding darkness began to warp and shrink and a tiny pinprick of light pierced through the darkness, lighting up the tip of Shadow's nose and expanding slowly. Mephiles too began to warp, his features twisting and churning. __**"Farewell for now, Shadow the hedgehog. And remember… The Darkness is coming." **__He hissed in parting before shrinking away into nothingness._

* * *

**_A/N: Heh, Mephiles is such a smartass... _**

**_Next chapter will be a filler-ish one with no appearances of our favourite evil abomination and more Shadow/Rouge moments._**

**_Thanks for reading!:)_**


	6. 5: Calm Before the Storm

**A/N: So... we meet again, dear readers...**

**As promised, here is chapter five- a kind of filler, which contains no gore and a lot of Shadow/Rouge fluff. It also seems a lot shorter than the other chapters... but maybe that's just me.**

**Now... in response to the following reviews...**

**Duskzilla: Yes, Mephiles is quite freaky deaky Dutch, isn't he? And as for the nightmare... I have to say that Pokemon was nowhere near my mind when I wrote this fic, but I can certainly see what you're getting at.**

**zucintruelordofthesaiyans: Sorry... but I won't be accepting OC's that have major roles (such as an escaped victim), as writing about what happens to them will steer me off-course from what I have planned and just add unnessecary elements to the fic. Again, sorry.**

**Now for what you guys really want... the story!**

* * *

**The Darkness Returns**

**Calm Before the Storm**

Morning

Shadow's quarters…

Shadow's eyes snapped open and he violently sat up.

Rouge, who had been observing him up close shrieked in surprise and fell backwards, banging her head against the wall behind her. Shadow's head swung around to face her, panting and wide eyed.

Once he realised who it was he sighed with intense and heartfelt relief, allowing his body to thump back against the bed. _'Good. She's still alive.' _

Shadow passed a hand over his face and exhaled shakily as he recalled the death of Rouge, seemingly by his own hand, from his nightmare.

The bat in question groaned and rubbed the back of her skull. "A bit of warning next time, Shadz?"

The dark hedgehog didn't respond, staring intently at his hand. He could almost see Rouge's blood staining it…

He shuddered.

Rouge lay down next to him, giving him a concerned look. "Shadow?"

His eyes flicked towards hers, holding them for only a moment before looking back at his hand. "I… had a nightmare."

Rouge shrugged. "I'm not surprised."

He turned his head towards her and raised an eye ridge inquiringly.

"You were screaming and thrashing about." She explained, rubbing at a badly throbbing bruise on her shoulder. Shadow cast his eyes downward; muzzle painted a slight rosy hue, and mumbled a faint 'I'm sorry'. The bat shrugged again. "You were asleep, so you couldn't help it. No biggie."

Shadow sighed. "Still…"

Rouge lightly flicked his nose. "What did I just say?"

The hedgehog frowned and rubbed at his tingling nose lightly with one finger. Rouge smirked at him before sitting up and stretching her arms above her head. "I don't know about you," she said, voiced muffled by a yawn, "but I'm starving, so I'm going to grab something to eat."

A brief flash of the bloodied Rouge laying underneath him flashed in Shadow's brain, causing an unexpected bout of panic to jolt through him. "N-no!" he exclaimed, sitting up and gripping her wrist fearfully. Rouge turned her surprised aquamarine eyes to Shadow's frightened ruby ones.

"W-what?!" she exclaimed.

Shadow blinked and stared at his hand curled tightly over Rouge's wrist. The normally stoic hedgehog's face suddenly became deep scarlet and he immediately ducked his head to hide his embarrassment. An utterly confused Rouge could do nothing but blink at him silently.

The pair sat in this awkward silence for a full two minutes before the bat could make out a faint mumbling coming from the hedgehog. She frowned, "Speak up, Shadz."

"I said… don't go." He whispered, shaking lightly. Rouge stared at him; those four words bringing about a swirl of mixed emotions. Confusion, surprise, happiness, pity, and a twinge of fear, just to name a few.

Taking the bat's silence as a declination, Shadow tightened his grip on her wrist. "Please."

The way in which he had said it, in such a tiny and vulnerable voice, made the jewel thief's heart melt and twist like forged metal. She nodded silently, not trusting her voice.

Shadow's expression became relieved and he gently tugged her to his chest. He rested his head over her shoulder and mumbled, "Sorry about this…"

Rouge shrugged and petted his back. "It's fine, but that nightmare must have scared you pretty damn badly for you to… act like you did."

He shuddered. "It was. Except…" he trailed off.

Rouge pulled back enough to look him in the eyes. "Except…?"

"Except… I suspect that certain aspects of it were… real."

Rouge frowned, "How do you figure?"

Shadow swallowed. "I… saw them die."

Rouge's breath hitched. "Y-you mean?"

Shadow nodded. "Yeah. I watched how they all died."

Rouge's lower lip trembled and a faint haze started to block the corners of her vision. She quickly blinked it away, determined to show little to no weakness if she could help it.

"So… have you figured out anything new?" she asked once she was certain that the haze of tears would not return.

He nodded and unconsciously clenched a fist. "Mephiles is the cause of all this."

Rouge shuddered at the memory of the darkness manipulating demon. "That makes sense." She muttered, casting her eyes downwards. And it did, really. Dark crystals and snake like eyes were features that Mephiles possessed, add to that the fact that their allies were being brutally decimated one after the other, a mere month after the defeat of Solaris and it was painfully clear who was responsible.

Rouge sighed irritably. "Damn. The signs were pretty obvious, yet we had no idea it was Mephiles doing this until now… kind of pathetic."

Shadow grunted and pondered on whether or not he should inform Rouge of the rest of his nightmare. The pair sat in silence for a few minutes until Rouge broke it.

"Shadz?"

He grunted.

"There was more to that nightmare, wasn't there."

He frowned. Was he really that easy to read?

"Yes." He said after a brief hesitation. Rouge pulled back fully from the dark hedgehog, a stern no nonsense look on her face. "Tell me."

"I saw… myself, Sonic and Silver." He began slowly, unwilling to tell Rouge of her 'death'. "The three of us were stuck in a giant crystal ball."

Rouge frowned but gestured for him to continue.

"Blood began to gush from Sonic's mouth and he fell into a puddle of darkness- which swallowed him up. Then a giant pair of Mephiles' hands picked up Silver and… me. Mephiles crushed us and threw us at the crystal ball."

Rouge's lip curled in disgust. Shadow continued anyway. "Most of the blood fell away until there was a sentence."

Rouge cocked her head slightly. "What did it say?"

"The Darkness is coming…"

Rouge shivered and rubbed her arms over the newly formed goose bumps on her shoulders. "Creepy…" she muttered. Shadow nodded and let his gaze drift across the room, eyeing the shadows mistrustfully.

Rouge shifted and crossed her arms under her breasts, a suspicious frown on her face. "Hm… and yet, none of what you've just told me tells me why you were acting so… odd earlier."

Shadow's fists curled into the bed sheets and his jaw tightened. "Mephiles claimed that he might… kill _you_ next. So…" he trailed off and stared at one of his clenched fists.

The bat blinked, a faint warmth heating her cheeks. Was he really that worried for her that he wasn't going to let her out of his sight? Who knew that he could be so caring?

She smiled crookedly and, on impulse, drew Shadow in for a hug, startling the brooding hedgehog. "Rouge, what-?!"

"Shush." She commanded nuzzling into his neck. Shadow clamped his mouth shut, uncomfortably aware of the steadily rising heat in his cheeks due to Rouge's voluptuous body pressed firmly against his.

"Thank you…" Rouge mumbled into his dark fur. Shadow grunted and awkwardly wrapped his arms around her too. "Likewise."

The pair were only allowed a precious thirty seconds to indulge in their tender moment before the door to Shadow's room exploded inwards in a cloud of splinters.

* * *

Rouge screamed and Shadow's grip on her tightened.

A heavy mechanical footstep sounded.

It took a moment for the sound to properly register with Shadow and when it did he heaved out a heavy sigh of relief. "Omega…"

More footsteps, then the massive robot that made up the firepower for their team of three emerged from the small cloud of still floating wood chips. A shaking Rouge turned accusing eyes to the robot. "What the bloody hell was that for?!" she snarled.

The robot's head swivelled around, its small vermillion optical sensors slowly scanning the room. "Trace of Mephiles the Dark detected…" the machine said in its typical cold robotic voice.

The pair froze.

"Wh-what…?" Rouge whispered.

"Trace of Mephiles the Dark detected." Omega repeated, 'eyes' coming to rest on Shadow.

The hedgehog's skin crawled. "Where?" he asked, although he had the sneaking suspicion that he knew what the answer would be.

Omega walked over slowly, each footstep clanking dully, until he was arms reach from his organic teammates.

One thick arm rose and a silver clawed finger extended, aimed at Shadow's forehead. "Here."

Shadow stared back unblinkingly. So… his guess had been correct.

Rouge gave the robot a confused look. "But how…?"

"My nightmare." Shadow said, turning his eyes to her. "It seems Mephiles left behind a footprint of sorts when he invaded my dream…"

Rouge nodded in understanding. "So, that's what Omega picked up." She muttered.

The robot's 'eyes' continued to burn with laser like intensity at Shadow's head and the hedgehog returned the gaze unblinkingly until the robot returned his arm to his side. "All traces of Mephiles the Dark… gone." His voice droned.

Shadow nodded once and disentangled himself from Rouge. "C'mon," he urged quietly, "let's eat something then decide what to do from there."

She nodded mutely and took his offered hand, allowing the hedgehog to gently pull her up from the bed and to the door.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later…

Morning

G.U.N mess hall

"So what you're saying is that Mephiles possesses some of his victims?" Rouge inquired.

Shadow nodded and swallowed a mouthful of iced coffee before replying. "Yeah. And when he possesses the victim, they're gripped in a painful fit until they are completely under his control." Another swallow of iced coffee. "And when Mephiles' possession is successful, the victim's eyes become the same as his."

Rouge slowly twirled her fork over her half finished pancakes. "And then he finishes them off by making those crystals erupt from their bodies…"

Shadow nodded in confirmation.

Rouge cut off a small chunk of maple syrup covered pancake and stuck it into her mouth, chewing thoughtfully. "So… who else is left?" she asked after swallowing the mouthful of food.

Shadow raised an eye ridge. "Why?"

"So we can save _someone_." The bat growled irritably, stabbing her fork into her pancakes to emphasize her annoyance. Shadow closed his eyes in thought. "Besides us… there's the Doctor; but I doubt that Mephiles cares about him…"

Rouge nodded. "And even if he did kill off Eggman, it would be more of a blessing than a curse for us."

"There's also Silver… but I think he's safe for the moment."

Rouge tapped at her chin thoughtfully. "I suppose so. It should take Mephiles a little longer to reach him..."

Shadow spun his now empty iced coffee bottle on the table and scowled. "Then there's Amy's other two teammates… Cream and that fat oaf Big. Not that he would care about them…"

Rouge licked syrup from her lower lip, a thoughtful expression on her face. "Anyone else?"

Shadow shrugged and gave the iced coffee bottle another spin. "I would say Blaze but… I'm not sure what's become of her." Another spin of the bottle. "Assuming she's still alive, then it will take Mephiles more time to reach her since she is from a different dimension." He slapped his hand over the bottle, ceasing its motion. "Other than us and the five I just mentioned, I really don't think that there are any others who are in any immediate danger."

Rouge grunted and shoved her plate to the side so she could place her elbows on the table. She laid her cheek thoughtfully against her right palm. "Truthfully speaking… there's no love lost between me and Amy's team, so I don't care about them too much." Her lids lowered halfway and she grimaced slightly. "However… Cream is just a child. And I think that it would be cruel to allow another kid to die…"

The pair sat in heavy silence as their minds drifted to Tails and Charmy; the two youngest casualties. Omega, who had been silent for the majority of the conversation, broke the sullen thoughts of his organic teammates by asking, "Proposed course of action?"

Shadow pushed his chair back and stood up, a determined look on his face. "We find the two remaining members of Team Rose before Mephiles."

"And if we don't?" Rouge asked, gazing at him steadily.

Crimson eyes narrowed. "If we fail, then we Chaos Control to the future and make sure that he doesn't get to Silver."

Rouge pushed back from her chair and nodded. "Let's go then."

* * *

Some fifteen minutes later saw Team Dark granted permission to seek out Amy's two living team members with orders to bring them back to the base if one or both of them lived in order to keep them safe from Mephiles.

Rouge's eyes quickly scanned over the small piece of paper in her left hand, the directions to five possible places that their targets could be neatly printed upon its crisp white surface. She sighed and folded it in half. "Hmm… I don't know about you boys, but I'm unsure of which place to hit first."

"Start from the first location on the list and work our way through it until we find them." Shadow ordered without turning around. Rouge pocketed the small list. "Ok then. The first location listed is Big's shack."

"Let's go then." Shadow said, as the small rockets built into his shoes began to power up. Rouge and Omega each grasped one of his hands; the trio then sped off into the horizon.

* * *

**A/N: ... Adventure!8D**

**Baaaaaw! Look at all that fluff!X3 **

**"It is enough to make one want to vomit." **

**Eh, it could be worse Mephiles... I could try to write smut... and fail really badly... =_=;**

**Moving on...**

**The next chapter will take me more time to upload as I'm still working on it while simultaniously working on four or so assignments and battling writer's block... **

***bashes head against table* Being in year eleven sucks major PINGAS...**

**Reviews brighten my day like you wouldn't believe and excite me to the point of squealing and waking up my sister early in the morning just to tell her. So...**

**Please give me the evil satisfaction of waking her up!:)**


	7. 6: A Small and Bittersweet Victory

**A/N: G'day all! Sorry for the wait, but I've been bogged down with assignments and a shitload of writer's block. =_=;**

**Sorry about the excessive fluff and Shadow's extreme out of charcter-ness last chapter... I promise that from now on there will only be one or two moments of extremely mild fluff from now on... at least until I get to Silver and Blaze, then there will probably be a fluff overload... ^^;**

**Duskzilla: Hmm... interesting idea, but I'm sorry to say I won't be using it. Unfortunately, I only have an extremely limited amount of knowledge about Tails Doll (as in I know it's name and only one or two other random things) so I won't be incorporating him (it?) into the story. Not only that, I said that this is going to be a short fic (nearing the climax at this point) and I stand by that. But thanks for trying to give me ideas anyway. :)**

******Two more deaths, and much violence ahead, as well as an unexpected appearance.** Enjoy, guys!

* * *

**The Darkness Returns**

**A Small and Bittersweet Victory**

Hours later…

Afternoon

House of Amy Rose

"Damn! This place is a bust too!" Shadow snarled, slamming a fist into the white painted wooden doorframe he was standing next to.

Rouge winced at the large hole the hedgehog's fist imprinted on the object's wooden surface. "Cool it Shadz, there's only one more place left." She said, hoping to placate him, if only a little.

The Ultimate Life form ground his teeth and removed his fist from the ruined doorframe. "Let's hurry, then… c'mon Omega!"

"Affirmative." Was the robot's immediate response to the order.

Team Dark exited the home of Amy Rose and, as had been their routine for the past few hours, Rouge and Omega each grasped one of Shadow's hands. The hedgehog then powered the rockets in his shoes and the trio shot off towards their final destination.

Once the three were out of sight, Mephiles detached himself from the shadows of the surrounding forest and chuckled. "Fools. They are already as good as dead!"

The darkness manipulating being's body melted into a thick dark goo and sunk into the ground.

It was time to slaughter the fat cat and the rabbit girl.

* * *

Moments later…

Afternoon

House of Vanilla and Cream the rabbits

Mephiles reformed outside a quaint cottage painted a comforting light beige and looked up.

A thin and fragrant trail of smoke floated lazily from the residence's chimney and his muzzle creased with a triumphant smirk. Just as it was before he'd left.

His ears detected anguished wails and sobs within the house's walls and his mouthless smirk broadened. It seemed that news of Sonic and the pink hedgehog's deaths had finally reached them. Their anguish would make it even simpler for Mephiles to infiltrate the cosy house and eradicate the pair. The abomination transformed his body into a dark mist and proceeded to float through the chimney.

* * *

Mephiles' short journey through the chimney went by smoothly without any obstructions, and only the rising heat from whatever was cooking brought him minor discomfort.

At the end of the chimney was a large opening and he paused at it to make sure that his exit was all clear. He was in luck. A womanly figure was in the process of moving away from the opening, hands lightly dusting over a crisp white apron.

Mephiles' misty form left the pizza oven, equally quick and cautious, and reformed behind the woman whose back was facing him.

As if detecting his presence, the rabbit woman stiffened before whirling around to face him.

As soon as their eyes locked, the woman's widened in surprise and she opened her mouth to scream.

One of Mephiles' crystallized hands slapped itself over her mouth, cutting off the scream before it could be vocalised. Her eyes widened further with terror and she raised a hand to slap him. Mephiles swatted away the hand in a bored manner, repeating the action twice more before growing impatient and gripping Vanilla's wrist tightly.

She emitted a muffled scream and tried to yank her wrist out of his grasp. Mephiles leered at her and applied more pressure to her wrist, excited chills running down his spine as her muffled screams grew louder and her struggling more pronounced.

He was pondering on how to increase her suffering when an innocent child's voice thick with tears and concern reached his ears. "M-mother? Are you alright?"

Mephiles narrowed his eyes in annoyance. '_Careless!' _he berated himself, only half aware that his grip on the woman's wrist had increased in pressure. Quickly, he dragged the struggling rabbit woman deeper into the kitchen and halfway into the open stand-in pantry.

* * *

"…Mother?" Cream called again, more uncertain this time.

"Maybe she went outside." Her friend and companion, a purple cat that was large in many senses, suggested in his slow dopey voice. The little rabbit girl frowned and chewed at her lower lip, lowering her gaze to her shoe clad feet. "Yes… maybe." She murmured, clearly unconvinced.

Cream felt something small and comforting pat her shoulder and she looked up in surprise to see her blue Chao friend, Cheese. The little creature continued to pet her shoulder with one of his soft bubbly arms. "Chao chao!" he squeaked encouragingly in his high pitched voice, causing the young rabbit to smile. "Yes Cheese, I suppose you're right."

The creature smiled and puffed out his chest slightly, proud that he had managed to coax the facial expression from his owner.

The smile was quickly dropped however, and the little girl stared at her bright shiny shoes once more.

"Chao…" Cheese squeaked in a somewhat sad manner, fluttering onto Cream's shoulder and clutching softly at her ear.

"I'm sorry, Cheese." She murmured, reaching up to pet his head. "I'm just so sad that so many of our friends are… are… _gone_ because of this disease." She sniffled and rubbed at her eyes. "And now they're… n-never coming b-b-back!" she began to sob uncontrollably, placing her face into her little gloved hands and soaking them with her anguished tears.

Big made to comfort her but an odd sound caught his attention, causing one of his long ears to twitch. "Hm? What was that?" he wondered aloud.

Cream slowly removed her face from her hands. "Wh-what?" she hiccupped.

"I thought I heard something…" the cat said, tilting his head slightly in the direction of the kitchen. His ear flicked again. "There… did you hear it?"

Cream nodded stiffly. Yes, she too had heard the faint snapping noise, and it had sent frightened chills down her spine. "What do you th-think it could be, Mr Big?" she whispered, eyes glued to the closed door of the kitchen. The cat shrugged. "I dunno…"

Cream swallowed uneasily and clutched Cheese close to her chest.

Big noticed and gently petted her head with one of his big gloved hands. "I'll look for your mama and see if she's ok."

Cream smiled up at him gratefully, "Thank you, Mr Big."

He smiled down at her in return and lumbered to the kitchen.

* * *

"Mrs Vanilla?" Big called softly as he opened the kitchen door and attempted to squeeze his massive bulk through the small opening. The fact that there was no reply, and that the kitchen was empty confused the cat and made him feel uneasy. But since he was such a slow and somewhat dim-witted creature he ignored his ill feelings and fearlessly lumbered around the kitchen, calling for Cream's mother.

He was midway through the action of opening a cupboard to see if she was hiding in there when a faint noise made his ears lift. It sounded like fabric sliding softly over the ground.

"Mrs Vanilla?" he called again.

Silence.

Big shrugged and went back to looking for Cream's mother in the cupboard.

The weird noise returned.

Puzzled, he ceased his fruitless search of the cupboard and lumbered around in slow aimless circles, keeping his large ears and little eyes open for whatever was making the noise.

Eventually, dizziness caused him to stop spinning.

Big blinked away his tilting double vision so he could get a proper look at what was in front of him. Once the disorientation passed, the cat frowned. Before him was the rabbit family's stand-in pantry, the door ajar and some pale pink fabric with white trim peeking from the gap.

For reasons he could not fathom, Big felt extremely frightened by the sight.

He gulped nervously and cautiously approached the pantry, despite his instincts which screamed for him to turn tail and run away as quick and far as he could.

He couldn't run. No, he wouldn't. He'd promised Cream that he would find her mother and that was what he intended to do, crippling fear or no.

One large gloved hand pressed gently against the wood of the door and cautiously pushed it open.

When the interior of the pantry was revealed, it took five full seconds for what Big was seeing before him to register, and when it did he was too frozen with abject fear to move.

"So glad that you could join me…"

The silky voice made Big's fur stand on end.

"I hope that you can offer me some… entertainment!"

A multitude of crystals shot out at the cat.

* * *

A loud yell of pain coming from the kitchen caused Cream to flinch and squeeze Cheese closer to her chest. "Cheese… I think that was Mr Big." She whispered.

The chao emitted a scared whimper and burrowed his head into her arms. She squeezed him tighter ever so slightly. She was just as scared.

Sounds of a struggle floated out from the open kitchen door, further adding to the pair's fright. "What do you think-" Cream began, cutting off her own question with a gasp as her wide eyes took in the sight taking place on the opposite side of the open kitchen doorway.

A dark chunky crystal shot past the opening, skewering the opposite wall.

Cream clambered over the back of the couch and ducked behind it, cowering. "I-it's the disease that killed Amy and Mr Sonic!" she exclaimed, recalling the newspaper article that she and Big had been reading only minutes earlier.

A frustrated snarl accompanied by an angry growl made Cream stiffen.

Never before had she heard a voice filled with so much malice behind it. It terrified her.

'_I hope Mr Big is okay…'_

Suddenly, realisation struck her. "Mr Big is in there!"

A noise that sounded suspiciously like a window smashing penetrated her ears.

Throwing caution to the wind, the little rabbit girl poked her head over the top of the couch to peer at the kitchen door. She was in time to see Big stumble out from the kitchen, bleeding from multiple wounds inflicted by the same type of crystal she had seen earlier. Her eyes widened, "M-Mr Big… what..?"

A spear of dark chaos energy shot out from the wall, slicing Big's shoulder and making him yelp.

Cream immediately scrambled over to her large friend. "Mr Big!" she cried, distressed at his injuries.

"Cream… hide!" the cat wheezed.

"B-but…!"

Another spear of chaos energy, this one missing Big's head by millimetres.

He gave her an urgent shove towards the stairs that led to the second story of the house. "Hurry!" he whispered, casting an urgent look over his shoulder.

"But what about-"

A third spear lodged itself into the carpet next to Cream's shoe, cutting her off.

She squealed and ran.

* * *

Mephiles growled with annoyance and turned into mist, floating through the smashed kitchen window. _'That worthless tub of lard is strong…' _he grudgingly admitted to himself as he reformed inside the destroyed kitchen. _'He needs to be disposed of quickly.'_

His pointed crystallised legs tapped melodiously over the tile floor, muffled only when he stepped into a small puddle of blood.

'_Yes… once the cat is no longer an obstruction, I can easily extinguish the life of the little one.'_

A pleasurable shudder rolled through him.

If his kills so far had excited him, he could only imagine how good killing Shadow would feel.

He smirked in his mouthless way and emerged from the kitchen.

In the living area, the bloodied cat wobbled to his feet, the rabbit nowhere in sight. Mephiles snorted contemptuously. _'Foolish mortals…'_

"You cannot win. Submit to the embrace of death." He stated, forming a churning orb of darkness in each hand.

Big picked up the couch from the side and hefted it over his shoulder like a baseball bat, a determined look on his face.

Mephiles scowled at the cat's defiance. "So be it." He growled, legs dissolving into mist.

Big froze, shocked by the sight, giving Mephiles time to fly towards him. He recovered quickly however, and ducked as the abomination slashed at his head. The orb in that hand leapt forward eagerly despite missing its target and something exploded behind Big.

The cat gave Mephiles a hard shove, sending him crashing through a wall. As he flew, the remaining orb flew out of Mephiles' grasp and soared past Big's shoulder where it connected with a vase, causing it to explode in a cloud of dust and tiny shards of porcelain.

Big hefted the couch a little higher on his shoulder and charged at Mephiles head on.

* * *

Cream fumbled clumsily with the lock on her door, all too aware of the sounds of battle downstairs. After what felt like an eternity, it clicked, signifying that she had succeeded.

Quickly she bolted her window closed and leapt to the centre of the room, eyes flitting about frantically for a hiding place in the semi-darkness. After a particularly loud explosion sounded, her eyes settled upon her chest of toys. She stumbled towards it and threw open the lid, quickly removing her collection of dolls and stuffed animals from it and piling them on the floor. Once it was empty she threw open her dresser and carried over armfuls of toys at a time, dumping them all inside unceremoniously.

The evil voice from before gave a loud and animalistic snarl, causing Cream to accidentally shut the door of her dresser with more force than necessary. She hoped and prayed with every fibre of her being that the evil one hadn't heard.

The fighting below continued without pause and she sighed with relief.

"Quickly Cheese!" she whispered, crawling into the wooden chest.

The chao zipped in after her. He didn't need to be told twice.

Cream folded her body into a ball, pressing Cheese close to her chest and closed the lid of the toy chest, plunging them in complete darkness.

"Please be ok, Mr Big…" Cream whispered.

* * *

The front door of the rabbit residence exploded outwards, taking Mephiles with it.

The wooden object crashed to the ground, the impact sending a small spark of pain in the centre of its passenger's back. Mephiles growled with annoyance and slowly rose to his feet.

Pain was not the issue.

A wheezing Big squeezed his bulk out the ruined door frame, dragging the half broken couch after him. Mephiles' hands curled into fists, his pointed fingers drawing a small amount of blood. "Ridiculous!" he hissed to himself, angered that of all his victims the only one to properly fight back was a fat half wit. Not only that, the brute was actually pushing him back, even with the severe injuries he had already received.

The cat grunted and heaved the ruined couch over his shoulder again and Mephiles' eyes narrowed.

It was this cat that was the problem. He needed to go… now!

Mephiles flexed his fingers a couple of times, the movements causing them to click and crackle.

Big suddenly charged forward with a determined yell. Mephiles simply stood in place, staring intently at the approaching cat.

'_Two more seconds…'_

The cat had already crossed the halfway mark between the two of them and was steadily gaining more momentum as he ran.

'_One…'_

The cat was almost within striking distance, and he began to swing the couch at Mephiles.

Mephiles slowly, almost leisurely, lifted his left hand, palm facing the oncoming cat, and quickly charged chaos energy.

Big's eyes widened. He realised his mistake, although it was of course, too late. He was going too fast to stop, and even if he tried, his momentum would just keep propelling him forward.

'_I'm sorry I couldn't stop him Cream…'_

A quick dark blur of chaos energy shot out of Mephiles' palm and skewered Big in the forehead.

* * *

The abomination yanked his fist back, severing its connection with the spear of chaos energy, which immediately dissipated.

The cat wobbled precariously on his feet for a second before falling forward and crashing into the dirt. Mephiles stalked past his corpse and threw it a contemptuous glare.

If he had a mouth, he would use it to spit on this fat piece of trash.

As he walked closer to the house, Mephiles' pace began to increase and his growing anticipation made him shudder. All thoughts of the time he had wasted on Big vanished, replaced by images of the little girl he was about to kill and how he would go about it.

He wouldn't snap her neck like the girl's mother… she wouldn't have time to scream. He didn't want that… oh no. He wanted to hear her loud agonised screams as she died.

Every. Last. One.

He smirked mouthlessly and began to climb the steps leading to the upper floor of the cottage.

Once he had ascended the last step, a small hall stretched before him, each smooth wall marred by three doors.

Mephiles cocked his head slightly and hummed to himself. "Decisions… decisions…"

He paced slowly to the first door on the left, staring at it long and hard for a few seconds before blasting it to pieces with a dark orb and stepping into the room.

* * *

It took all of Cream's willpower to force herself to not scream at the sound of the explosion.

A clamped hand over Cheese's mouth also helped ensure that the chao didn't make any noise to give away their position.

A deafening silence followed the loud noise and Cream felt that if she so much as breathed too loud, the evil one would instantly find them. Cheese shuddered and Cream gave him a gentle squeeze to assure the chao that they were ok. For the moment anyway.

A second explosion sounded and the pair flinched.

Cheese whimpered and Cream quietly shushed him, perking her large ears to make sure the evil one hadn't heard the small noise. As the deafening silence stretched into an agonising eternity, the rabbit child was left wondering if their luck had finally run out.

A third explosion.

No. Not yet.

Although, now that she thought about it, there were only three rooms left, including her own.

Still, she was extremely thankful that her room was located at the end of the hall. At least that bought her a little more time before she was found.

'_Someone please… hurry!' _she silently begged, tears sliding down her face.

* * *

"Warning! Mephiles the Dark detected."

Shadow's smooth pace was broken by his surprised stumble due to the sudden statement.

A surprised Rouge and Omega both teetered with the hedgehog as he hastily tried to right himself.

"Where?!" Shadow growled as soon as the threat of falling had passed.

"Approximately thirty seconds north-east." Omega answered.

Shadow ground his teeth and applied more thrust to his skates, propelling the trio forward faster.

"Let's hurry then." He growled, voice only just audible over the rushing of wind. Rouge squeezed his hand tighter and Omega forced more power out of his jets, further adding to their already insane speed.

Shadow never believed in God or any other such entity, but at that moment, he prayed with all his might to whatever greater power that existed that they would find the cat and the rabbit in time.

'_Hurry… hurry… save… danger… Cream… help…!'_

This sudden bombardment of a multitude voices made Shadow's head throb, causing him to hiss with pain and squeeze his eyes shut. _'W-what…?'_

'_Danger… hurry… Cream…' _the voices whispered urgently.

'_I know! I'm almost there.' _He thought back, somewhat irritated and confused at these sudden voices in his head. The voices kept jabbering as though they hadn't heard him. _'Save… Cream… hurry… save… danger… Mephiles!'_

Shadow's eyes immediately snapped back open at the mention of the abomination.

'_C'mon Shadow! Get a move on!'_

His crimson eyes widened further with disbelief. "Faker…?"

Rouge tilted her head in his direction, frowning. "Say what?"

Shadow ignored her, his attention fixed on a transparent blue hedgehog which grinned cheekily at him whilst running backwards through the air ahead of him.

'_C'mon Shadow, you're almost out of the woods!' _Sonic encouraged, jerking his thumb over his shoulder at the rapidly approaching break in the tree line to emphasize his point.

Shadow gave his head a quick shake and added another quick burst of speed to compensate for how much he had lost due to the sudden appearance of this Sonic apparition.

The Ultimate Lifeform's eyes narrowed slightly at his dead rival. "What's the meaning of this?" he growled, certain that this was another of Mephiles' mind tricks. Sonic's face became a mask of seriousness. _'I'm dead Shadow… and so are lots of our friends...'_

The gaggle of voices from before returned, whispering urgently inside his skull, but he blocked them out, focusing instead on Sonic. _'We want to make sure that no more join us.' _Sonic continued, giving Shadow a hard look. _'If you don't hurry, then pretty soon Cream's gonna join us.'_

Shadow's jaw clenched and he gave Sonic a curt nod. The dead hedgehog's expression softened and his body quickly began to fade. _'Good luck!' _

"Shadow!" Rouge yelled in warning. The hedgehog blinked, seeing that they were rapidly approaching a light beige cottage scarred by a recent battle. He immediately turned off the jets in his shoes and dug his heels in. Omega and Rouge quickly followed suit, bringing them to a halt in front of the broken down front door.

'_Hurry… danger…!' _the voices whispered with growing urgency.

Shadow yanked out of his team member's grasp and bolted into the house.

* * *

The sixth and final door exploded.

Cream curled up into an even tighter ball as chunks of wood scattered throughout her room, some of them banging against the outside of her toy chest. Her ears picked up the sound of the evil one's strange feet tapping slowly against the wood of her floor and she squeezed her eyes shut, allowing a few stray tears to slide down her face.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are…" the silky voice of the evil one called in a sick sing-song voice. Cream squeezed her eyes shut even tighter as she heard the evil one slowly pacing around her room, humming quietly to himself. "You cannot hide from me." The evil one chuckled from somewhere around the right of the room.

More tapping of the evil one's odd feet then a pause. The sound of a door slowly creaking open made Cream's stomach drop. He'd opened the cupboard.

"Aha…!" it was impossible to miss the triumphant note in the evil one's voice. He'd found the soft toys, which meant he was going to crank open the toy chest she had balled herself and Cheese into. The evil one's footsteps made their way towards the toy chest.

'_Mummy…' _Cream thought, shoulders shaking with barely repressed sobs.

The lid of the toy chest slowly began to rise.

A sudden angry snarl that sounded somewhat familiar caused the evil one to drop the lid and plunge her into complete darkness once more.

The evil one cried out in shock and anger right before something loud thudded against the floorboards with enough force to rattle Cream's compromised hiding place. The unmistakable sounds of flesh smacking against flesh arose, accompanied by low growls and snarls. Cream flinched at every noise and squeaked when something was smashed into what sounded like the window. More flesh pounding ensued until one of the combatants grunted, followed closely by a large impact. In the brief silence that followed, Cream heard something that vaguely sounded like tar bubbling in a pit.

"This will not be the last you see of me!" the evil one hissed in a slightly distorted voice.

"Wait! You coward, come back!" Cream's saviour yelled, enraged.

"Don't worry… we shall see each other very soon. Farewell until then."

The bubbling noise stopped and a heavy silence enveloped the room.

The lid of the toy chest was suddenly ripped open, making Cream shriek fearfully and curl into a tighter ball.

A pair of strong hands began to lift her out of the cramped space and she immediately flailed about, fear and panic fuelling her movements.

"Hey! He's gone now, so calm down."

Cream ceased struggling and peered up at her saviour with tear blurred eyes. "M-m-m-mister Sha-dow?"

The dark hedgehog nodded once and pressed her close to his chest. "It's ok… he's gone. You're safe now." He soothed her as best as he could in his gruff voice. Cream buried her head in his chest fur and began to wail.

As Shadow quietly murmured assurances to the little rabbit that she was ok, he stared across her destroyed bedroom at Sonic. The dead hero smiled sadly back at him.

One person had been saved, but two more had died. It was truly a small and incredibly bittersweet victory.

* * *

**A/N: Man... this is the longest chapter to date. It's also been the biggest bitch for me to write... T.T**

**Hopefully my writing doesn't look too slack at the end, if it does tell me and I'll try fix it, along with any other errors you guys happen to pick up.**

**Oh yeah... I'm working on art for the story cover at the moment! **

**I've already got a pretty solid idea of what I want, but feel free to give me some ideas anyway.:)**

**As always, your reviews are greatly appreciated so please leave one if you have the time.**

**Sayonara 'til the next chapter!**


	8. 7: Infiltration

**A/N: Hey all... I'm sorry for the wait!^^;**

**I've had this chapter finished for a couple of days but to be honest... I've been _majorly_ stressed out with school (And only a week in, no less!) so I've just been trying to relax.**

**Add to that the fact that I had a _severe_ case of writers block whilst typing and... well... a lot of waiting around for a single chapter. So again, I'm sorry everyone!T.T**

**Also, my sincerest apologies if this seems rushed in places!~**

**Now... without further ado... here's the long awaited seventh installment of The Darkness Returns!**

**By the way, if anyone can spot the Mortal Kombat reference in here and tell me what game its from and who said it... I'll write you a one-shot as a prize! **

**Happy hunting, readers~!;)**

* * *

**The Darkness Returns**

**Infiltration**

**Hours later…**

**Nightfall**

**Gun Headquarters, Commander's office**

Cream stared blankly around the clean office as Shadow and the G.U.N Commander talked, feeling numb inside, while the events of the last few hours flashed erratically through her mind.

Her mother and most of her friends were dead.

Tears began to blur her vision, and she was unsure of how many times she had done so today.

Her hand was squeezed gently by Rouge and she squeezed back, somewhat comforted by the contact.

The Commander, a tall human with slick greying hair and eyes of two different colours, slid his chair out slowly. "Agent Rouge, you are dismissed. Please take the child back to your quarters and see to it that she is looked after."

Rouge nodded and gently tugged Cream towards the door. She could hear Shadow starting to follow.

"Don't leave yet agent Shadow. There are still some things that I wish to discuss with you."

The footsteps stopped.

"As you wish…" the hedgehog replied coolly.

Cream looked over her shoulder at him.

He offered her a small smile and a slight shooing motion, indicating that she should follow Rouge. The bat tugged gently at her small hand. "C'mon Cream."

The little rabbit girl looked away from the hedgehog and trudged out the door after Rouge.

The Commander cleared his throat. "Now… about the materials you requested…"

Rouge closed the door.

**Ten minutes later…**

**Nightfall**

**Rouge's quarters**

Cream sat silently on Rouge's bed, watching the bat conversing with a human agent outside the door. She heard food being mentioned multiple times and her stomach rumbled in response to the word. Rouge thanked the agent and closed the door with a sigh. She then made her way over to Cream and sat next to her, causing the bed to sink somewhat. The rabbit didn't look up, instead keeping her attention focused on her finger slowly tracing circles on the bed sheets.

"_Come out, come out wherever you are…"_

Cream flinched at the memory of the evil one's silky voice and abruptly stopped tracing.

"… Are you ok?" Rouge asked. She knew that the question was stupid, but thought it best to say something anyway.

Cream shook her head. "I miss mummy…" she whispered brokenly, eyes beginning to water. "And Amy… and Mr Big… and… and…" her words died in her throat, replaced instead with harsh sobbing.

Rouge pressed her into a hug, stroking her hair slowly and whispering that it was ok and that she was safe. They both knew that she was only being half truthful.

* * *

**Half an hour later…**

A light knock sounded, rousing Rouge from her light doze.

She yawned and slowly detached herself from a sleeping Cream. The child shifted onto her side but showed no other signs of waking. Rouge padded to the door and opened it for her visitor.

Shadow gave her a small smile, a tray of food balanced on one hand. "Hey. Can I come in?"

Rouge returned the smile. "Sure. Just be quiet." She said, motioning towards the bed.

The hedgehog nodded and padded into the room with Rouge shutting the door after him.

Shadow let out a small chuckle and Rouge walked to his side, giving him a quizzical look. "What?"

"Oh nothing… I just didn't expect you to be the motherly type." He replied with a smirk, gesturing at the comfortably snoozing Cream.

Rouge snorted disdainfully. "Trust me… I'm not." She then smirked coyly back at him, "What about you, huh?"

Now Shadow gave her a quizzical look, causing Rouge's smirk to grow.

"Daddy Shadow." She cooed.

He snorted, eyes glinting with amusement. "Whatever… mummy Rouge."

Rouge covered her mouth, trying hard to stifle her snorting giggles.

Once the small laughing fit was over, she punched his arm lightly. "Oh Shadz… you crack me up."

The hedgehog huffed irritably. "Whatever… where do you want me to put the food?"

Rouge wiped tears from her eyes and gestured to the right side of the room where a desk half covered with papers stood. "Over there, but don't stain the papers, or I'll kick your ass."

Shadow snorted contemptuously but moved towards the desk anyway. After placing the tray down, he examined one of the papers. It was a blueprint of a building adorned with arrows and Rouge's smooth handwriting. There was also a large circle drawn in the centre. Shadow sighed and rolled his eyes, knowing full well what the papers were. "Plotting your next heist I see." He remarked, walking back to the jewel thief's side. She shrugged nonchalantly and crossed her arms. "It helps to pass the time." She replied smoothly. Shadow sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You have a problem." He muttered. Rouge flashed him a charming smile,

"Don't we all?"

He grunted in agreement and crossed his arms.

'_Uh-oh… here comes Mr Serious.'_ She thought, rolling her eyes.

Shadow tilted his head in her direction, "Rouge, I want you to stay here and look after Cream."

The bat raised a brow. "Oh? And why would I do something boring like that?"

"Rouge, bear with me-"

"No." she cut in, "I _refuse_ to play the helpless damsel in distress while you take down Mephiles."

"Rouge… no offence, but you wouldn't be able to handle him."

Her left eye twitched. "Say that again…?" she growled. Shadow uncrossed his arms and turned his whole body around to face her. "I'm not saying you can't fight, because I know you can handle yourself fine."

"Damn right." She muttered. Shadow ignored her.

"But, Mephiles is extremely powerful… he's way out of your league."

"So what? You could probably use my help." Rouge retorted, crossing her arms defiantly. Shadow frowned. "Rouge, I've defeated Mephiles twice already… _three_ times if you count Solaris. So I'd say I'm fine on my own. Besides, I'll have Silver if I need any backup."

Rouge's eyes widened. "You're going to the future?"

He nodded. "Besides the three of us, Silver is one of the only survivors left, so it's imperative that I get there so I'm in time to prevent another death."

Rouge's grip on her arms tightened. "What about if Mephiles' next target isn't Silver? What if he comes to finish what he started with Cream?"

Shadow froze.

"Or," she continued slowly, "what if he's after me?"

The pair became silent; Rouge's words settling over them like a thick fog.

Cream shifted onto her other side and uttered a small whimper, breaking the silence.

Shadow sighed and ran a hand through his quills. "Damn it Rouge…" he growled, frustrated. The jewel thief shrugged and looked over at Cream. "Sorry for being right." She muttered.

Shadow sighed again and passed his hand over his face. "I wish you weren't so stubborn…" he muttered. Rouge turned her head to smirk at him, with one hand planted on her hip. "I wouldn't be much fun if I wasn't, now would I?"

Shadow uttered a small 'hmph' but didn't say anything.

Rouge's smirk abruptly vanished, and she stared back down at Cream. "If you won't take me, at least take Omega." She said quietly.

Shadow paused, considering, and then nodded once. At least if he took the robot, he wouldn't have to worry about him dying. Robots could be repaired… organics could not.

Rouge sighed and recrossed her arms. "I really wish I didn't have to play the simpering Miss, while you and Omega go after Mephiles…"

Shadow shrugged. "I'm sorry, but it can't be helped."

Rouge waved away the apology. "Save it, Shadz." She grumbled. The hedgehog sighed at her annoyance and absently fingered his left inhibiter ring. He knew she would get over it… eventually, and when she did, she would realise the wisdom in his decision.

'_I won't let her become another victim because of my existence.' _He vowed, clenching his fist.

* * *

**Hours later…**

**Midnight**

**Outside G.U.N HQ entrance**

The trio of guards posted at the entrance of the military base huddled together, trying to maintain warmth in the midst of the unusually cold night. "Christ…" one of them muttered, breathing onto his frigid fingers, "You'd think it was the middle of winter with how damned cold it is out here!"

The oldest of the three grunted and lit up a cigarette. "I'm not a superstitious man, but this is just plain unnatural."

The other two murmured their assent.

A lounging Mephiles smirked from his position in a nearby tree. _'Of course weak mortals such as these would find my presence chilling and unnatural…'_

The youngest of the three peered uncertainly into the darkness around Mephiles' general direction.

"Call me crazy with a K, but it feels like we're being watched."

The man with the cigarette chuckled. "You're always being watched in the military."

The youngest man still looked uncertain. "I know but… it's not like the usual feeling of being watched…"

The oldest raised a thick eyebrow. "Pray tell. How does this feeling differ from the norm?"

The youngest swallowed and scratched at his arm. "It almost feels like… a predator eyeing its prey."

Mephiles tilted his head and smiled as much as one can without a mouth. _'Predator and prey… how fitting.' _He mused, keeping his eyes trained on the three military personnel.

The one with the cigarette laughed heartily. "Kid, there's nothing out there," he gestured towards the darkness, "besides trees."

Mephiles smirked at his ignorance.

"Honestly," the man continued, puffing out a cloud of noxious smoke, "anyone would think you're afraid of the dark, the way you're carrying on!" he chuckled and nudged the other man, who had been silent throughout the whole exchange. "Am I right, Dave?"

The one known as Dave shrugged. "I'm not so sure…" He said quietly. The old man gave a contemptuous snort, "Don't tell me you believe this kid's bullshit!" he asked incredulously, gesturing towards the youngest soldier, who immediately stared at his boots. Dave gave the old man a cool gaze. "I believe what I want, Bryan."

Bryan rolled his eyes and puffed out more cigarette smoke into the air, checking his watch as he did so. "Five more minutes of freezing hell before our time's up." He remarked. Dave grunted and the youngest soldier's gaze had returned to the darkness. He squinted and swore he could see a pair of green eyes glowing dimly at him through the darkness.

Mephiles chuckled as the soldier shifted uncomfortably.

As the abomination continued to watch the trio's interactions, he noticed some vague similarities between them and a certain three hedgehogs.

The old man with the cigarettes, Bryan, had a cocky self-assurance about himself that was similar to the dead blue idiot, Sonic. Dave was like Shadow, in the sense that both of them were quiet and wouldn't put up with their obnoxious counterpart's crap. And the youngest was similar to Silver, who was inexperienced and not quite accepted by his peers.

Mephiles' mouthless smirk broadened. _'Fate can be so ironic sometimes…'_

He chuckled and lightly traced a crystal encrusted claw over the bark of the tree branch he was lounging on. _'Ah Silver… I'll be seeing him again soon, won't I?'_

His tracing became slightly faster. _'Hm… I do so wonder how things will go when I appear before him… with any luck I can manipulate him again. Yes. He is so very easy to manipulate…'_

Without realising it, he had clawed deeper into the bark as he emitted another low chuckle. _'Oh yes… fate truly is an ironic thing!'_

"Time's up fellas, we can go back in now!"

Mephiles' head snapped up to stare at the retreating trio of humans.

He sighed with relief. _'Thankfully that human's voice is obnoxiously loud… otherwise I would have missed my opportunity!'_

He quickly dropped to the ground, allowing his body to transform into goo just before impact.

The youngest soldier stopped dead in his tracks and looked over his shoulder at the trees. He could have sworn he'd heard something.

Dave noticed his fellow soldier's hesitation and called softly over his shoulder, "Is everything alright?"

He offered Dave a small smile. "Ah… yes. I thought I heard something and wanted to investigate."

Dave frowned. "Well, if you're going to stay out here then don't be too long."

He smiled back at him and nodded, "I won't."

Dave gave him one last long look before turning around and entering the base, leaving him alone. Mephiles rushed forward, seizing the opportunity he had been waiting three long hours for.

As if hearing his swift but silent approach, the soldier whirled around, reaching for the pistol holstered at his side. He was in time to see a large mass of black goo leap towards his face before his vision was obscured by its suffocating darkness.

He emitted a muffled cry and frantically clawed at his face in an attempt to dislodge the vile substance. He opened his mouth to call for help, but the goo forced itself down his throat, making him choke and gag. The soldier stood, shuddering and gagging for a full minute, until Mephiles attained complete control of his body, ceasing the shudders.

He clenched a hand experimentally and a demonic smile passed over the face of his vassal.

Phase one was complete… now it was time for phase two.

He licked the thin trail of blood from the corner of his mouth and entered the base.

* * *

**Rouge's quarters**

"Thank you for bringing the food Mr Shadow. It was delicious." Cream said, giving the hedgehog a small smile. He shrugged in response and crossed his arms. "It's the least that I can do for you."

The rabbit girl turned and gave Rouge a slightly bigger smile. "And thank you for letting me stay in your room Miss Rouge."

'_And for keeping me company…'_

Rouge smiled. "Don't sweat it, hon."

Cream's curious brown eyes moved between the pair. "I don't mean to impose on you both any further… but could you please tell me what you were talking about earlier?"

The pair exchanged glances. Rouge tilted her head ever so slightly in Cream's direction. _'Should we tell her?'_

Shadow frowned and gave his head the tiniest shake in existence. _'No. She'll only get worried.'_

Rouge shrugged and turned back to Cream, giving her a charming smile. "Oh nothing… just adult stuff."

Shadow felt the strongest urge to face palm.

Cream gave the bat a confused look. "Adult stuff…?"

Rouge laughed lightly and petted her head. "You'll know when you're older."

Cream frowned in puzzlement, but otherwise appeared to accept the lie.

She shot the pair's relief to hell with her next question.

"But what does 'adult stuff' have to do with Mr Shadow leaving?"

Both of them immediately tensed. _'Crap! Busted. And by a child, no less!'_

Cream's eyes widened. "Y-you're going after the _evil one _aren't you?" she whispered, trembling.

Shadow frowned. _'Evil one? She must mean Mephiles.'_

Rouge was quick to try and convince her otherwise. "No, no, no, hon. You've got it all wrong! Shadow has a… mission that he needs to complete."

Cream pouted. "Lying is bad, Miss Rouge."

The bat opened her mouth, and then abruptly closed it. There was no point in trying to convince the kid that she was wrong when she already knew that she was being lied to.

"Yes," Shadow said slowly, "I'm going after him."

Rouge sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

Cream's lower lip quivered. "But… you'll get hurt if you go after him…" she turned her gaze to Rouge, giving her a beseeching look, "Please tell him not to go, Miss Rouge!"

The bat removed her hand from her face to give Cream a sad smile. "Sorry Cream, but Shadow's already made up his mind. And when the Ultimate life form makes up his mind, its damn near impossible to make him change it."

Shadow shot her a small scowl before giving Cream a soft look. "Cream, if I don't take care of '_the evil one'_ then more people will die. You don't want that to happen, do you?"

The rabbit girl shook her head.

"I didn't think so." Shadow said, slowly rising to his feet.

Cream quickly grasped his hand, preventing him from moving away from the bed.

He blinked down at her.

"Please don't hurt yourself too badly, Mr Shadow." She whispered.

He offered her a faint smile. "I'll try not to."

The rabbit nodded mutely and released his hand, rubbing at her eyes.

Shadow walked to the door and grasped the handle, about to turn it. Mephiles' dark aura suddenly flared up close by and Shadow abruptly stiffened.

"Shadz?"

The hedgehog cursed under his breath before turning to face Rouge. "He's here." He hissed, acutely aware of the dark aura steadily growing closer. The bat leapt to her feet, a fearful expression pasted onto her face. "What?! But how could he know where we are?"

Shadow shook his head. "I don't know, and it doesn't matter. I'm going to try and stop him now… stay here with Cream."

With that he exited the room, slamming the door shut on Rouge's protests and running, full pelt, for his quarters.

The screams of G.U.N soldiers filled the air and their blood painted the walls of the base they were trying vainly to protect. Bodies fell as he passed; their cause of death the raking of his crystallized claws through their soft flesh.

Mephiles felt a giddy rush at the massacre he had thrown himself into, drunk on the blood of his victims, and couldn't prevent a huge smile from crossing the face of his vassal.

This was the first time he had heedlessly thrown himself into 'the front lines' and he liked it, despite it not being his usual killing method.

The fact that he had openly thrown himself into battle, with no sneaking around and quietly slitting throats, made adrenaline flow wildly through him like river rapids, adding to his excitement and enjoyment. A laugh escaped his vassal's throat, the sound maniacal and vaguely resembling his own. Oh how he was enjoying himself!

The consciousness of the vassal, whose name he learnt was Jay, pleaded with him to stop killing his comrades. With a growl, Mephiles shoved him deeper into the depths of his own mind, annoyed that the human had temporarily interrupted his fun. He decided to kill more humans just to be spiteful.

With a small mental command, the crystals coating his fingers elongated to twice their original size. Intense pain racked through Jay's body and a harsh cough escaped his throat, allowing the blood welling inside it to splash forth from his mouth and further paint G.U.N's cold metal flooring crimson.

'_Oops… how foolish of me to forget about the recoil.'_

Truly… one would have thought that he would get the picture after going through so many vassal transformations, minimal or otherwise, and receiving the same harsh recoil whenever he did so.

This is the one major drawback to Mephiles' possession of others; the host's body is unable to deal with the shock and trauma of becoming encased in crystals and as a result, destroys itself from the inside in varying timeframes.

Mephiles made the body lick the blood from the sides of its mouth quickly before resuming his mass slaughter of G.U.N soldiers. There were only a sparse handful left and they were dealt with quickly, much to the abomination's disappointment.

Creepily elongated crystal fingers were flicked out, sending bloody droplets everywhere. Mephiles sighed heavily. "Boring…" he grumbled, moodily eyeing the mass of gored bodies surrounding him. "I hope Silver will put up more of a fight then these humans."

He kicked lightly at the still face of one of the soldiers at his feet, causing the corpse's head to rock forward and back slightly. Sniffing disdainfully, he began to walk down the hall, hoping to find more victims or better yet; Shadow. Both of his fists immediately clenched. "Your death is at hand… 'Ultimate life form'." He hissed venomously.

"W… wait…"

Mephiles stopped in his tracks and his piercing gaze immediately locked onto the source of the weak but determined voice.

One of the soldiers awkwardly stumbled to his feet; one arm firmly wrapped around his stomach to both staunch blood and prevent his intestines from spilling out. In the soldier's other hand was a pistol, which was cocked at his head. Mephiles frowned and tilted his head slightly. _'Have I seen this human before?'_

A large wave of panic swept from Jay's consciousness and then, all at once, he remembered.

"Ah… you are the human soldier that was on guard before… Dave, wasn't it?" Mephiles concluded; his earlier frown quickly replaced with a broad smirk. Dave's eyes narrowed and his mouth set itself into a grim line. Despite his weak heavily swaying body, the gun remained still and pointing at Mephiles' head. The abomination chuckled. "Aha. I thought so..."

"Get… out of him… y-you… bastard!" Dave hissed, obviously in a great deal of pain. Mephiles cocked an eyebrow at him. "And why should listen to the demands of a half dead _human_?" he sneered. A bullet whizzed dangerously close to his face, making him flinch.

"Get. Out." The soldier growled, eyes burning hatefully.

A low chuckle came from the possessed mouth of Jay and his body took a step towards the dying soldier. "Very well. I shall exit the body of your… comrade."

Besides a small twitch of the mouth, Dave's expression remained unchanged.

Something bad was about to happen, he was certain of it.

Mephiles continued to make Jay's body come closer to Dave, pushing away the possessed soldier's helpless screams to spare his comrade, every step of the way.

Dave's finger squeezed the trigger ever so slightly. "Stop right there… and get… out." he ordered between pants.

The abomination paused, cocking his head to the side as his smirk broadened.

"As you wish…"

Dave had enough time for his eyes to widen with horror before the dark jagged crystals that were now shooting out from his fellow soldier's skin pierced him through the heart.

Dark liquid bubbled out of Jay's throat, dropping to the bloodied floor and forming quickly into the hedgehog shaped abomination.

He offered the two new corpses a mouthless smirk before venturing deeper into the military base.

* * *

**A/N: Well... hopefully this is enough for you guys at the moment... **

**I'll try to get writing the next chapter, ASAP, so there isn't such a long wait next time!**

**So... can you find the MK reference? **


	9. 8: Conniving Bastard

**A/N: BiteWorseThanBark is BACK!XD**

**And look at that, she brought you all the next chapter of The Darkness Returns two days before her birthday... how awfully sweet of her!**

**Heh, I was gonna be evil and not post this until then but figured that you'd all been patient enough while I struggled against the combined might of writer's block, a crap ton of schoolwork and (not quite finished) block exams. And to be honest, this chapter excited me WAY too much to hold back until then.^^;**

By the way,that Mortal Kombat question I posed last author's note?

**Contest's still goin'!**

**So if you want me to write you a one-shot, you need to answer the following question:**

**What was the quote that I used, who says it originally, and which game is it from?  
**

**So, I'm sorry Duskzilla... but you didn't quite get it this time.^^;**

Anyway, partake if you want to (as many times as you like), because this contest will remain until SOMEONE gets it right!

Now, onwards, readers!

* * *

**The Darkness Returns**

**Conniving Bastard**

**Gun HQ, Shadow's quarters**

Gloved hands frantically scrabbled across the surface of a desk in the near darkness of the room, the sound accompanied by their owner's annoyed cursing.

"Damn it all! Where _are _they?!"

With great effort, Shadow managed to restrain himself from smashing the wooden object, but was barely able to quell his growing annoyance and rage.

His rapidly diminishing patience was soon rewarded by his hand coming into contact with a hard jagged edged object, its unearthly cold penetrating through his gloves and chilling his hand.

Relief made his shoulders sag.

He hadn't lost _it_.

After a little more, albeit less frantic, scrabbling; Shadow's empty fist curled around the somewhat smoother, but just as eerily cold, surface of the second object he sought. It jangled as he drew it close to him.

A grim smile played at the corners of his mouth as he dropped both objects into a backpack to join with a shiny pair of pistols and an SMG, as well as enough ammunition between all three guns to butcher his target to mincemeat, already inside.

After zipping the bag closed, Shadow released a small grunt of exertion and hefted the heavily weighted pack onto his shoulders.

The hedgehog strode for the door, snatching the glowing green chaos emerald from off of his bed as he passed and shoved it into a side pocket of the backpack.

Now he was ready for Mephiles.

Said abomination had converted back to his usual methods; silently slipping through the shadows and occasionally backstabbing passing G.U.N soldiers that were unfortunate enough to cross paths with him, in hopes of either catching Shadow off guard, or finishing what he started with the little rabbit girl.

'_Or,' _he thought with a mouthless grin, _'I can demoralise him further by slaying the bat girl. He does seem to exhibit an overwhelming sense of… protective possessiveness for her.'_

A low dark chuckle escaped him.

'_Perhaps I can… have my way with her before I kill her… that would most certainly set Shadow off.'_

Sick thoughts raced through the shadow manipulator's devious mind, eliciting from him a pleasurable shudder.

Yes. Such a thing would provide him with a totally new, unexplored and very exotic form of entertainment…

Snapping away from his sick imaginings, Mephiles rounded yet another corner of the military compound, branching out his awareness of nearby Chaos energy and allowing his own to flare, tauntingly, as an invitation for Shadow to find him.

The dim, almost non-existent energies of the human soldiers hummed all about him in the hundreds, if not thousands, but he ignored them, trying to pinpoint larger sources.

'_Humans. Humans. Humans. Hu-'_

His ears perked up slightly.

Twin sources of energy. Bigger and brighter than those of the humans; but only by a slight margin.

Reptilian eyes glittered maliciously.

It wasn't Shadow. Oh no. It most definitely was not. Both energies combined would only have accounted towards the amount of strength required to blink. Meaning…

Savage triumph made Mephiles' eyes shine brighter. "Here I come… bat girl… little one!"

Mephiles' energy pulsed, not five hallways over, causing Shadow to halt.

It was brief, taunting, and he could almost hear the abomination laughing, accompanied by the taunt of 'Come and find me!'

A low growl rumbled in his chest.

'_Oh I'll find you all right… and when I do, I'll make good on that new mouth I promised you!'_

Pointed teeth were bared into a savage grin as the hedgehog resumed his brisk pace. At once, the low, quiet whining of the miniature jets in his shoes filled his ears, accompanied by the gentle rhythmic 'shushing' of his skates gliding against the floor. He had barely moved twenty meters when something he never dreamed he would hear again so soon caused his head to throb with migraine like intensity.

'_Hurry… danger…'_

Shadow cried out in pain at the unwelcome return of the voices.

'_Save… hurry… save… danger…'_

He stumbled and fell to his knees, whimpering at the amplified volume of the disembodied voices, which began to rise higher, their general tone becoming more anxious.

Shadow clutched a hand to his temple. "Shut… up!" he hissed through clenched teeth.

'_Danger…' _the voices insisted, _'Cream… help… danger… save… Rouge…'_

Crimson eyes snapped open wide.

"No…" he whispered, clumsily pushing himself to his feet. "I won't… let him kill them!"

'_Then you better hurry up, Shadster.'_

He directed a scowl at the transparent blue hedgehog now standing a little ways away from him.

"Don't call me… _Shadster_!" he spat, his annoyance dispelling most of his shakiness.

An impish smirk twitched at the corner of Sonic's mouth for a moment, before dropping away and forming into an uncharacteristically serious straight line. _'Listen Shadow… I could tease you all night but all that'll do is waste time and get Cream and Rouge killed.'_

The living hedgehog flinched as his ghostly counterpart's words metaphorically slapped him in the face with a dead fish. Quickly regaining his composure, he offered Sonic a quick nod and reignited his skates. "You're right, faker… Let's get going."

Sonic's trademark grin shattered the stern image he previously held. _'That's the way!' _he cheered, already running through the air, leading the way to Mephiles and his victims.

**Rouge's quarters**

He was coming… she could feel it.

Evidently, so could Cream.

The girl shivered and sobbed quietly against Rouge's shoulder, whilst the she-bat stroked her head fur gently, acutely aware of the unnatural cold that was creeping its way towards them. She just barely repressed her own shuddering.

'_I can't fend him off very well like this… I need a weapon.'_

Aquamarine eyes darted about her small room, seeking sharps… Or at the very least, something to smash the abomination across the face with.

There was the chair at her desk, although it would be flimsy and ineffective against Mephiles.

How about the mirror in the small bathroom? Slamming it over his head would shatter the glass, which would slice him up a little…

No. It would certainly be good for an initial surprise attack, but would do even less damage than the chair.

Frustration boiled in the pit of Rouge's stomach.

Just what the hell could she use as a weapon? Everything within the room was either too heavy for her or not deadly enough.

She supposed she could hold him off for a little while through hand to hand combat. After all, she was skilled enough and, judging from her previous encounters with him; Mephiles appeared to posses no physical combat skills to speak of.

'_He's got freaky powers though,' _she reminded herself sternly, _'He could skewer me with those crystals of his, or possess me… or Cream… faster than I could blink!'_

Her mind whirred frantically with battle strategies, whilst the object of her panic steadily grew closer and closer…

"M-miss Rouge?" the quaking little voice located over her shoulder whispered.

The bat came to attention with a small sharp intake of breath and a firm shake of her head.

"What is it, hon?" she whispered back.

"… The evil one's getting closer." Cream answered with a shudder.

Rouge's grip over her tightened fractionally. "I know…"

The rabbit shifted enough to stare into Rouge's eyes. "Y-you don't think the evil one got m-mister Shadow… do you?"

For a moment, the bat's heart seemed to freeze in her chest and the air felt as though it was being crushed from her lungs.

But then she remembered previous situations that were somewhat similar to this one in the danger aspect…

Each time, Shadow had pulled through, no matter how high the odds were stacked against him.

Her breath returned and her heart resumed its steady beat.

She flashed Cream a confident smirk. "Don't worry about Shadow, he'll be just fine."

After an initial blink of surprise at the sudden change in the bat's expression, Cream beamed at her. "You're right! I can't believe that I thought that at all… I'm sorry Miss Rouge; that must have scared you."

The bat lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. "Well… it certainly caught me off guard…"

Cream smiled sheepishly and offered another apology, but the older girl simply brushed it away.

"Oh don't worry about it Cream… I'm a big girl; I can handle a little comment like that!"

The younger girl chewed at her lower lip and nodded. "Well okay… if you're absolutely sure that you're fine…"

The bat nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure. Anyway," she gently detached herself from the young rabbit and stood up, "we need to worry about ourselves."

Cream nibbled at her lower lip. "I don't mean to be a downer, Miss Rouge, but what chance do we have against the evil one?"

A light bulb pinged inside Rouge's scheming mind as she stared at her desk.

"Man… I can't believe I forgot about _that_." she muttered, slapping a gloved palm against her forehead. "You damned idiot, Rouge…"

"Forgot what, Miss Rouge?" Cream asked hesitantly.

The bat crossed the threshold of her room towards her desk and yanked open the top drawer.

A small grim smile crossed her muzzle as she reached inside and pulled out a .9mm pistol.

The gun's barrel glinted dully in the faint light streaming through the window as she checked the chamber. The bullets were still in place. Not a big surprise, seeing as she hadn't touched the thing since she shoved it in the drawer straight after Shadow gave it to her last year.

Wide brown eyes widened almost comically at the sight of the weapon. "A g-gun?" Cream exclaimed hoarsely.

Rouge cocked the barrel at her door experimentally, giving the rabbit girl a barely perceptible nod. "Chaos knows it's one of the only things that'll incapacitate Mephiles long enough for us to run away… Anyway, get behind me, he's getting awfully close and I don't want to worry about somehow shooting you with this thing." she half joked as she jerked her head behind her, indicating that Cream needed to do as she was told. The rabbit meekly did so, huddling behind Rouge. The she-bat adopted a firm stance, ready to act as a shield if necessary to ensure the younger girl's safety.

Goosebumps rose on her smooth tan skin along with her white fur, which began to stand stiffly on end, as Mephiles' chill crept ever closer towards them.

The seconds ticked on, agonizingly long and tense. All the while, the two females stood taut with fear and the beginnings of an adrenaline rush.

A single bead of sweat slid down Rouge's muzzle, over her mouth and dripped down her chin, landing into the carpet with a sound imperceptible to all but her own acute ears. She barely noticed, instead focusing on the sound of approaching footsteps.

The gait was leisurely slow and measured.

No prizes for who it belonged to.

As she continued to listen to the abomination's approach, Rouge picked up on a slight change in the sound of his footsteps. No longer the regular tapping of shoes, but the beginnings of the melodious clicking of something sharp tipped.

'_Crystallizing…' _she realized, her grip on the pistol tightening and her body becoming more rigid.

Mephiles' footsteps drew closer still, now audible to Cream, who whimpered and curled her hands tightly into the fabric of her dress. On the bed, the practically forgotten Cheese squeaked and hurriedly burrowed underneath Rouge's pillow, out of sight.

The footsteps stopped, just outside the door, the wooden object doing nothing to prevent the unearthly chill that seeped from the smart half of Solaris and into the room.

The .9mm's safety was clicked off.

An expression that was a mix of a feral snarl and a defiant scowl took over Rouge's features. "Come and get me, fucker…" she hissed, the faintest of wavers in her voice.

A drawn out silence, followed shortly afterwards with an amused chuckle.

Something metallic, the doorknob, began to crumple with a terrible crunching/screeching noise that set both of the girl's teeth on edge. The door fell straight afterwards, thudding onto the carpet and revealing the creature framed in the doorway.

Mephiles' eyes shone with malicious glee as he took in the sight of both of the frightened girls.

Acid green and aquamarine eyes locked.

The sides of the crystallized hedgehog's muzzle stretched up, closer to his eyes and Rouge could almost _see _the impossibly large, sharp toothed grin that should have been there, and that scared her more than if the mouth actually existed.

"You asked for it, bat girl." Mephiles purred silkily, lifting one clawed hand to chest level. "And I will be sure to enjoy every delicious moment of your agonised screaming."

Tears flowed freely down Creams face and she released a loud sob.

Rouge however, was now a different story...

Wariness crossed the mouthless creature's face. "Why are you smirking at me?"

Sure enough, said facial expression was plastered to the jewel thief's face. She appeared cockily confident as she gave a small shrug of her shoulders. "Oh, no reason… although it's funny how you think _I'll _be the one screaming."

Now confusion and doubt clouded Mephiles' face. "What are you-"

The sound of miniature jets whining didn't register with his ears until just before their snarling owner tackled him to the ground, which was of course, far too late.

For the second time within the span of the day, Shadow's gloved fists smacked into Mephiles' flesh.

Shrill screaming sounded behind Rouge and in the confusion she herself released a high scared noise, accidentally squeezing the trigger.

Blood blossomed on dark fur, but the violent twisting brawl between the two dark furred hedgehogs made it impossible to tell whose it was.

'_Yeah, Shadster! Smash him up!'_

Said hedgehog ignored the obnoxious cheers of the dead blue one who had guided him to Mephiles and his almost victims, instead focusing on delivering punch after punch to his crystallized doppelganger's face and body. Mephiles, despite his earlier surprise, was now putting up quite a fight. He snarled and slashed at Shadow with his clawed hands like some feral caged animal. Some of the attacks hit their mark, but Shadow was too hyped with adrenaline to properly feel them, much less care.

The small but rapidly expanding pool of their mingled blood made the brawl slipperier, and they found it harder to both manoeuvre and get a firm grip on each other.

Because of this, Mephiles had the upper hand.

His clawed hands wrapped themselves around the throat of his object of hatred.

When Shadow attempted to do the same, his gloves, now slick with crimson, merely fumbled clumsily, unable to get a good enough grip.

Because he lacked gloves, and his hands were jagged, Mephiles' grip would not be subject to the same slipping as Shadow's was.

The crystallized hedgehog's grasp was relentless and crushing, causing Shadow to cough and choke harshly. Mephiles leaned over him and sneered into his ear, "Once I've killed you, your precious little bat bitch is _mine _to _play_ with."

"…Like… hell!" Shadow snarled in response, baring his pointed teeth.

Another gunshot sounded, Mephiles' agonised cry following it.

As soon as the grip of his cold pointed fingers loosened, Shadow seized the opportunity; jerking his head back and then forward, butting their foreheads together and prompting another pained yelp from the abomination. Shadow simply grit his teeth and bucked the crystallized hedgehog off, immediately scrambling up and away as soon as he was free of Mephiles' near crushing weight.

Rouge fired more shots at the downed abomination, creating multiple shallow holes in his hardened skin, which allowed more blood to stain the previously pristine carpeting.

With a wall rattling snarl, Mephiles quickly formed a dark orb and flung it at the bat, who immediately ceased firing. Her eyes widened at the rapid approach of the deadly object; knowing she wouldn't be able to move fast enough to avoid it, and even if she did, Cream would be killed.

"Rouge!" Shadow's panicked cry was lost amidst the crackling of the Chaos Spear he flung to counter Mephiles' likewise loud projectile. Both Chaos created attacks collided with a massive explosion, knocking all standing off their feet and into walls, and showering them all with a fine coating of plaster dust and chunks of the ceiling.

For a few minutes there was nothing but an eerie silence within the destroyed room.

Then the one of the unconscious occupants began to stir and cough, slowly gathering their wits about them.

A freezing chill made itself known on Shadow's shoulder and he flinched at the feeling, releasing a strangled yelp.

'_Get up, Shadow. You've got a murderer to take care of!'_

With a grinding of teeth and a grunt of effort, the living hedgehog obeyed the words of his dead rival; painfully clambering to his feet and scanning the light cover of rubble for either the girls or Mephiles. A small patch of white began to shift at his left and the sight sent relief flooding through him.

"Rouge!" he called hoarsely, almost immediately dissolving into a coughing fit due to the vast amount of plaster dust in the air.

More shifting of the white patch. "Shadz?" croaked the familiar voice of his bat ally.

The black and crimson streaked hedgehog wasted no time in quickly clambering towards Rouge, and was already tossing a chunk of the ceiling off of her once he was close enough to do so.

She coughed and peeled back her dust covered eyelids to stare up at him, smiling. "Well well… weren't you quick to help?"

He simply grunted some vague noise, removing another chunk of plaster, this one from off of her legs. The jewel thief immediately wiggled free, revealing an unconscious, but unscathed, Cream curled into a tight ball underneath her.

Shadow's features softened fractionally before abruptly hardening again. His crimson irises began scanning the rubble for Mephiles, or any suspicious shadows.

He didn't need to search long; the abomination was slumped inside a dent the size of his body in the wall closest to the door, beginning to stir weakly.

Rouge slowly stretched into a standing position, wincing at the faint throbbing pain the movement caused, and glanced in the downed crystal hedgehog's direction. Her lips curled up into a leering smirk, eyes glittering with vicious triumph. "Hope you liked that dosage of pain you mouthless lunatic, because there's a _lot_ more where that came from!"

Beyond the threshold of the ruined bedroom, a single heavy footstep sounded.

Mephiles' head jerked up, just as the sound of a machine gun's whirring start up sounded.

He frantically lunged toward the ebony and ivory duo, who had now ducked to the floor and covered their heads.

Too late.

A concentrated barrage of bullets broke through the already dented wall, sending the brittle remains crumbling, and buried themselves into Mephiles' exposed back.

"Augh!"

As he flew, the shadow manipulator's body jerked about, as though a live wire was thrust into his flesh. His flight didn't last much longer; his body crashing into the plaster strewn ground after only another half second of flight.

The bullet hail immediately ceased; the near deafening sound of the lead pellets being firing dying into the dull whine of the machine gun reverting back to standby, and then into silence.

Once assured that another barrage wasn't about to be fired anytime soon, Rouge lifted her head and grinned at the chunky figure framed in the centre of the hole in the wall. "Nice work, Omega!"

After a series of metal sliding against metal and locking into place noises, the robot stepped through the hole, his massive shoulders taking out even more of it.

Shadow chuckled lightly, standing up and dusting plaster out of his fur. "I should've known…" he muttered, giving his head a slight shake. He offered his hand to Rouge.

Her grin broadened further as she gripped his hand and was hauled to her feet. "Don't feel bad that I've got better hearing than you, Shadz."

His response to the light taunt was to release an annoyed huff and shoot a glare at Mephiles' groaning form.

The hardened crystals coating said abomination's body had retreated and he stood, shakily, to his feet. A familiar glowing purple object was now clenched tightly in his right hand.

All other eyes within the room widened; their owners glued to where they were standing.

A few stray chunks of plaster were shaken from his head and he scowled hatefully at each and every one of them. "You…" he hissed murderously, "You shall all _die _very painfully!"

The Mobians and robot immediately tensed; ready for whatever was going to be thrown at them.

Mephiles' free hand was raised above his head, a dark cloud-like mass forming into a compact ball.

His eyes glittered, as though silently laughing at some private joke. "Goodbye."

The little ball was hurled at the ground.

It immediately exploded upon contact, kicking up, not an explosion, but a massive cloud of obscuring darkness.

The meaning behind the cloud clicked in Shadow's mind and he cursed, leaping for the abomination before he could make his getaway.

Mephiles' laughter pierced through the fog. "Too late, Shadow! Chaos… Control!"

A blinding flash of light cut through the fog, just as Shadow's hands were about to make contact with Mephiles, whom was now gone.

The crimson streaked hedgehog's face smacked painfully against an unforeseen chunk of ceiling, forcing blood to trickle from his nostrils.

Rouge was stunned to silence and Omega was simply trying to process what had happened in those chaotic few seconds.

Gloved fists slammed into the ground, their owner throwing back his head and howling at the heavens, "_You conniving little bastard_!"

At the sound of the outburst, Rouge flinched and Omega's clawed hands jerkily curled into half fists.

Ignoring their reactions, Shadow shrugged off the nearly forgotten backpack, pushing away the thought that he was lucky the ammunition didn't go off from his none too gentle impact with the wall earlier, and curled his fist around the green Chaos Emerald. He roughly replaced it onto his back and jerked his head at his teammates. "C'mon."

His eyes were burning with barely contained rage and the word he'd spat out was clipped and harsh. It was a scary sight to say the least, yet Rouge somehow found the courage to croak out a concern. "W-what about Cream?"

Lips were peeled back in a snarl to expose fangs and, again, Rouge flinched.

"She'll be safe here, but Silver won't. Let's _move_."

Terrified that she'd face his wrath, the bat quickly grasped his arm. Omega meekly followed suit.

Without further hesitation, Shadow invoked Chaos Control, sending Team Dark for the future housing an unsuspecting silver hedgehog.

* * *

**A/N: Mephiles transporting to the future with the aid of the emerald instead of by his own power may be a little confusing, but fear not! For I shall reveal the reason for that next chapter... whenever that may be!8'D**

Ugh... I REALLY need to create a better cover for this fic... dunno how though. The only artistic program I have is MS paint and my semi-new tablet pen fucks up anything I attempt to draw!=_=; *sigh*

Bitching aside, thanks for everyone reading, and a giant internet hug for all of you who have reviewed, faved, and followed this fic! I couldn't have gotten this far without your support!^O^


	10. 9: Shattered Absolution

**A/N: Hey there, everybody! **

**First off, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Now we can now watch 2012 and laugh!XD**

**Sorry for the wait. I'd say my terrible bout of writer's block was the cause for delay, but mostly it was because I've been extremely lazy, and just generally enjoying my holidays (Lots and lots of videogames~!). For this, I must extend my thanks, and ask that you all do too, to eternal1990. They PM'd me yesterday, asking about this chapter and, inspired by how much they, as well as you other readers out there, are enjoying this fic. Their gentle prod made me get up off my lazy ass and set to work. So thanks again, eternal1990!:)**

**Now, concerning the one-shot prize winner...**

**Guest user: Ali. You did it!:D Well, almost. **

**The question had three parts to it: What was the game it came from? (Mortal Kombat 9.) Who said it? (Johnny Cage.) And what was the quote? I'm certain you already know the answer but, y'know... Just give me the answer for that last bit and then tell me what you want the one-shot to be about... Although, if you had an account, this would be a lot easier... But I digress.**

**Oh yeah. I know I've been lazy with the warnings for the past couple of chapters, but I'll start again, 'cuz uh... theres a little bit of disturbing content upfront.**

**This chapter contains dark thoughts and self-harm!"OoO"**

**Now, for what you all really came for... read on and enjoy, faithful readers!^O^**

* * *

**The Darkness Returns**

**Shattered Absolution**

**Two hundred years**

**Midday**

**Somewhere in the heart of Crisis City**

Shaking. Badly.

He couldn't stop it, no matter the amount of willpower he summoned to cease the unwanted motion. Yet for all his shaking, the jagged shard of glass clenched tightly in his right hand remained securely tucked in the firm embrace of his gloved fingers, refusing to fall.

A single bead of perspiration slid from his forehead, past his eye and down his muzzle. Like a tear.

Tears… how many of them had he shed thus far?

Too many.

And yet… not enough.

Taking a shaky gulp of air, Silver the hedgehog hesitantly began to lower the shard toward his bare left wrist, the unclasped gold cuff that was usually adorning it shining dully next to him.

Closer. Closer. Closer still until the sharp tip froze, just the barest fraction above his furred skin.

He willed his hand to complete the action, to slice open his wrist and let the blood fall along with his momentarily unshed tears, but he couldn't. He was too scared to harm himself. Not only that…

Blaze would be disappointed in him.

The image of her pushed its way to the front of his mind, eliciting a choked yell from him and, before he realized he had done it, he hurled the fragment of glass away with all his physical might, with a touch of psychokinesis thrown in to push it even further away.

He then sat there for some time, unmoving, save for the ragged hiccupping breaths he drew, which sent shuddering ripples through him. Slowly, his thoughts returned, and with them came the realization that he had, yet again, failed to slit his wrist because of Blaze's memory.

Like the previous times this had occurred, Silver threw back his head and had a screaming fit.

The sounds were sad, of course, but that was only a small undercurrent amongst the raw and almost feral tone of it, along with the anger and bitterness that meant he had failed… again.

Waves of cyan psychokinetic energy violently lashed all about him like tentacled arms, striking anything and everything within reach; the almost physical hurt and anger coupled with the verbal making Silver's pain known to the dead and hellish world around him.

His cries rang through the hollowed out and deserted buildings until his throat was sore and he was reduced to a coughing and hacking fit to try and clear it a little. The psychokinetic energy had stopped destroying the immediate area by this point and was now swirling away into nothingness; leaving behind craters and jagged ruts to prove that it had existed, however briefly.

The pale hedgehog slumped forward, resting his forehead against the warm cracked asphalt beneath him. His knees, which had been planted there since the wrist-slitting attempt had started, were long since numb from lack of activity and from the muted pain of the uneven surface digging into his skin.

"Blaze…" his hoarse, croaking voice whispered to the ground, sounding foreign to his own ears.

A small fat drop of moisture stained the ground near his nose, followed closely by another.

'_It doesn't rain here…'_ Silver thought, hazily, as even more drops pattered gently in front of him.

It wasn't until a pair of long, thin trails of clear snot dribbled from his nostrils and joined the now large, and steadily growing, damp patch in front of him that he realized that it was his tears, and not rain, dampening the ground.

Not enough.

There would never be enough tears to bring Blaze back.

* * *

**Half an hour later**

His moping temporarily over, Silver trudged dejectedly through the ruined city he called home, searching for something to eat. Crying always made him hungry.

Scratch that, he was always hungry.

'_I swear Silver… with the amount of food you inhale, you could eat Iblis!'_

The ghost of Blaze's giggling voice stopped him in his tracks, threatening to send him into another mini depression. Instead of this occurring, only a stray tear slid down his muzzle and he stiffly continued the hunt for food.

Amy had said something along those lines too during his stay in the past.

She had taken him to what she called a 'café', treating him to lunch, and telling him to eat as much as he liked. Needless to say, he had quickly scarfed down at least half of the items on the menu while she sat, with the most comical wide-eyed, open-mouthed expression he had ever seen, watching. _'Sheesh, at this rate you'll eat the town!' _she had joked weakly after finally regaining her voice.

Silver shook his head in an attempt to physically dislodge the other stray thoughts of Blaze that were attempting to creep up on him. They skittered away into the far recesses of his mind, crouching and waiting to simultaneously blindside and send him into yet another bout of depression.

His boots began to crunch.

No, not his boots. Glass shards; from the buildings looming above him.

The memory of his recent attempt at self-harm flashed before him and he grimaced, absently scratching at a recently healed scab on his arm.

The only attempt with any semblance of success.

He hastily pushed away the dark thoughts beginning to clutter his mind, telling himself to persevere. He had, after all, gotten rid of Iblis for good, securing himself and whatever was left of the population monster-free lives to look forward to.

'_But what's the point?' _a snarky little voice in his head whispered, _'If Blaze isn't here to enjoy our success, life isn't worth living. At least if I die, I'll get to see her again.'_

This made him stop in his tracks.

Silver closed his eyes and began mulling it over.

After a half minute of deep thinking, his lids snapped back open, and buttery golden eyes sparked with stubborn determination. "No," he said aloud, "Blaze is still alive… _I know it_! I just need to figure out how to find her…"

It was at this point that a dark, silky and horribly familiar voice interrupted his peppy monologue, "Perhaps _I _can help with that."

With astounding speed, Silver whirled around to stand in a fighting position, hands glowing intensely with cyan psychokinetic energy.

Before him stood someone who he thought was gone for good. Someone who he was so sure was destroyed with the combined efforts of himself, Sonic and Shadow.

The smart half of the sun god Solaris and darkness incarnate: Mephiles.

This lying, manipulating creature should have been erased from existence!

"_Y-you_?! This is impossible! Y-you should be _gone_!" the fearful and bewildered hedgehog yelled.

Mephiles simply spread his hands. "And yet here I stand."

Gritting his teeth, Silver clenched both fists and snarled at him, "Yeah?! Well I'm gonna make sure you're gone for _good_ this time!"

Mephiles' eyes widened and he hastily held up both hands, palms up, in a non-threatening manner. "Wait, Silver! Please… hear me out first."

The psychokinetic bared his teeth. "No! I'm _done _being your pawn! It's time to _end_ this!"

"But, my purpose here is not to fight you! I wish to reunite you with the cat girl."

* * *

Silver faltered, a small spark of hope shining in his eyes through all the wariness. "…R-really?"

Internally Mephiles was cackling at the hedgehog's naivety, yet he flawlessly maintained his poker face. "Of course." he said, adding a nod to strengthen the affirmation.

Silver eased out of his battle stance and adopted a straight-backed position with arms crossed. Suspicion was painted all over him in fluoro yellow paint. "How do I know you aren't lying?"

Mephiles, once again, spread his hands. "Because I never have."

'_I simply bend the truth…' _he added to himself with a mental smirk.

The psychokinetic opened his mouth, promptly shut it, then frowned, slowly digesting this piece of information. Mephiles watched and waited patiently until the young hedgehog finally spoke. "Why should I trust you?"

The shadow manipulator shrugged. "I never asked you to. Besides," he released a tired, drawn out sigh, "I have nothing to live for… Iblis has been destroyed, after all."

This was his trump card, and if it failed, this entertaining little mind-game would be brought to an abrupt end, spoiling his fun and forcing him to take a more violent approach.

Fortunately for him, Silver seemed to take the bait.

Although his features still conveyed wariness, some of the initial tension had eased from him. "Okay." the hedgehog said with a stiff nod, "How are you going to find Blaze?"

Reptilian eyes glittered. _'I thought you would never ask…'_

Mephiles slowly closed the gap between himself and Silver, placing his hands on the albino's now rigid shoulders once he was close enough to do so.

"With you." he stated simply.

Confusion was written all over the hedgehog's features. "What do you-"

And then the most excruciating pain flared in his shoulders where Mephiles' gloved hands rested.

* * *

Silver released a strangled cry and tried to jerk away, but the abomination was too strong. That and his legs suddenly felt weak, despite being firmly rooted to the spot.

The shadow manipulator's laughter pierced the air like a thousand tiny, rusty swords. And was it… echoing in his head faintly?

"You… tricked… me!" the struggling hedgehog gasped, beginning to feel his shoulders go numb with an unearthly chill that was slowly, but steadily spreading.

Mephiles brought his nose close to Silver's. "Actually, no, I have not. I really do intend to reunite you with your precious little cat girl… just not in the way you were expecting."

From the corner of his eye, Silver noticed with alarm that Mephiles' hands were gone, replaced with oddly twisting and writhing blobby shadow-like tentacles that could barely be classed as arms, which were imbedded… no… _melded_ into his shoulders.

A high thin cry clawed its way from out of his throat, and he doubled his efforts to struggle free.

A low chuckle came from Mephiles. "It is useless to struggle, Silver… Just submit. There will be less suffering that way."

A brief, but almost dramatic silence followed before Mephiles dangled the juicy carrot in front of the hapless hedgehog. "Do you not wish to see her again?"

The albino whimpered and thrashed, summoning all his strength to throw off the abomination that was keeping him pinned. After another ten seconds of useless struggling, Silver stopped, panting.

Mephiles' muzzle creased upwards. "Ah good. You seem to have found reas-"

The psychokinetic interrupted by jerkily thrusting a palm at the abomination's chest, accompanied by a short, sharp cry of 'Haaah!'.

Silver's palm slapped harmlessly against the white puff of fur adorning Mephiles' chest with an almost cute 'fwuff' noise, causing his gold eyes widen with panic.

There had been no telltale cyan glow of psychokinetic energy.

Nothing.

"Wh-what?" he choked out.

The abomination threw back his head and laughed; the sound jabbing at his brain like a bee's stinger. "You _fool_, Silver! Did you _honestly_ expect that to _work_?"

The psychokinetic was too shocked to respond, and couldn't even move his gaze away from his palm. His non-glowing palm.

'_My power… it's _gone_… What has he _done_ to it?!'_

Reptilian eyes lit up with sick, delighted amusement. "The flow of your power has been… halted." he purred in a voice like chocolate laced with poison. "And it shall not return until I have finished merging with you."

"M-m-m-merging?!" Silver squeaked, finally snapping out of his shocked daze.

A low chuckle sounded from the abomination as his chest became a solid, drowning black colour and began sinking inwards, swallowing Silver's hand. "Yes, Silver... merging."

Then the rest of Mephiles' body transformed into shadowy goo, diving down Silver's throat when he opened his mouth to scream.

* * *

"-trol!"

Team Dark had arrived in the future.

But they were, yet again, too late.

Not five meters away from the trio, Silver was on his knees, choking and clawing at his throat.

Rouge's eyes widened. "Shit… Shadz! We're too late!"

The hedgehog released a string of snarled curses and leapt for the downed albino…

Only to be stopped by one of Omega's chunky arms.

"_Move_!" the enraged hedgehog snarled.

"Warning: Mephiles the Dark detected in the hedgehog known as 'Silver'."

"_I_ _know_! Now _move_! I can still help him!"

The robot reluctantly obliged, allowing Shadow to dash for Silver.

Once he was close enough to the lighter hedgehog, the Ultimate Lifeform quickly dropped to his knees and gripped Silver's scrawny shoulders, shaking him. "C'mon, kid, I know you're in there! Push that bastard out! You hear me?! Push him _out_!"

The albino screamed, choked and thrashed in response, managing to land a stray punch on Shadow's already tender nose. The streaked hedgehog released a snarled curse of pain and began to shake the other hedgehog even more forcefully. "Damn it, Silver!"

Rouge rushed up behind him and attempted to pull him off the younger 'hog by the shoulders. "_Stop it,_ _Shadow_! He's in enough pain!" she cried beseechingly.

The streaked hedgehog ignored the bat, her words going through one ear and out the other as he continued to shake the pained white hedgehog back and forth.

A thin rivulet of blood dribbled from the corner of Silver's mouth, its brightness contrasting with his pale snowy fur.

A chill made itself known on one of his shoulders (at the same time Rouge made a surprised squeaking noise and released his shoulders), the ghost of the blue hedgehog that owned the transparent arm attached to it yelled at him, _'Damn it, Shadow! _Listen_ to her!'_

Slowly, he ceased shaking Silver like a ragdoll and simply stared blankly at the twitching hedgehog's face. His golden eyes had rolled back into his head, leaving Shadow faintly nauseated by the sight of his whites glaring out at him.

Sonic's shoulders sagged a little with relief. _'Phew. For a minute there, I thought we'd lost you to rage.'_

Shadow said nothing, but his blood dampened gloves slowly released the white hedgehog, allowing him to fall back against the cracked asphalt; twitching and jerking about to his heart's content.

The ebony and crimson hedgehog continued to stare. Eventually he managed to croak out, "Mephiles is…"

Sonic's expression became sad. _'I know. But, like it or not, this is a battle that Silver's gonna have to fight on his own. You guys can't do anything but wait and hope that he can get that creep out of his body.' _the dead hero glanced down at said hedgehog, who was now releasing pained cries at irregular intervals. The Blue Blur's transparent face twisted with sympathy. _'I can't believe Tails, Elise and Espio had to go through that before they died… Not to mention all those others unfortunate enough to get in the way.'_

Shadow rocked back onto his hunches, still staring at the agonized psychokinetic in front of him. "Chaos help you, kid." he muttered, closing his eyes.

* * *

_Both of Mephiles' crystallized hands were wrapped firmly around Silver's throat, squeezing mercilessly and driving the pointed tips of his fingers into his skin. __**"You cannot win, Silver. This is **__my __**dominion."**_

"_**Yeah?" **__the hedgehog grunted back, __**"Well this is **__my __**head. So... Get. OUT!"**_

_With a sharp cry and thrusting of both palms forward, Silver shoved Mephiles off with a strong blast of psychokinetic energy, sending the abomination flying into the surrounding darkness._

_A quick thought from Silver summoned a giant brick wall a few meters behind Mephiles to 'soften' his landing. The structure immediately crumbled on impact, sending bricks raining down on Mephiles._

_How was such a thing possible?_

_To put it simply, the mind is the source of imagination. And where imagination is concerned, anything is possible. Even randomly appearing brick walls._

_But if such a thing is possible for Silver…_

_It is also possible for Mephiles._

_A gigantic shadowy creature more or less resembling the abomination soared out of the pile of bricks and launched itself at the psychokinetic; chittering and laughing in a strange high-pitched manner while it gnashed razor sharp teeth at him._

_Silver grit his teeth, summoning his powers into both hands to form a small glowing ball of psychokinesis, which he quickly lobbed at the creature's face. Both the energy ball and the creature's head exploded upon impact; sending spits and spatters of fragmented cyan energy, as well as big globs of dark shadowy substance, raining down. Silver could almost consider the sight beautiful._

_The pile of bricks covering Mephiles exploded, sending the heavy rectangles of masonry flying. Following this, the shadow manipulator crawled out, acidic eyes blazing as his sclera began to darken into a deep wine red. __**"Yes. That's right!" **__he called out at Silver, spreading his arms wide as they became hard, shiny and wickedly sharp with his crystallization. __**"Entertain me before you fall at my feet!"**_

_The psychokinetic swallowed and shifted his weight to the balls of his booted feet. _

_With his mind and body at stake, failure was _not_ an option._

_Then, half god and psychokinetic rushed toward each other, hands flaming with their respective powers._

* * *

The scorching heat of Crisis City blazed about Team Dark, yet Rouge seemed to be the only one affected. Shadow didn't appear to feel it despite his dark fur. That or he didn't care.

And Omega was a robot. Enough said.

But poor Rouge, despite her (lack of) white fur, was _boiling_.

'_Stupid cat suit!' _she mentally grumbled, pulling off her long gloves to air out her sweaty hands. Omega's head swivelled briefly in her direction before returning to stare back at the unconscious, twitching white hedgehog. "Warning…" he droned; something he had been doing at irregular intervals for a while now.

The jewel thief's aquamarine eyes settled on the time traveller and her gut twisted. _'That crystal bastard… of all the sick and twisted things he's done, torturing and killing _kids_ is the worst.'_

As she watched, more crimson began to leak from the sides of the albino's nose and mouth, and she found she didn't like the colour against his pale pelt.

Was it because their colouration was uncomfortably close to being the same shade? Sympathy?

She wasn't entirely sure, but she decided to pin it on sympathy.

Rouge eventually removed her eyes from the thrashing hedgehog and settled them on the dark and brooding one hunched nearby him, like a guardian angel. Her thoughts quickly drifted to when she had tried to pry him off Silver… and the icy feeling of something _other _resting its hand atop hers. Not to mention the faint outline of… something.

She had never truly believed in ghosts, and the ones she had already run into were too cutesy to prompt any real fear. But this one, if her eyes weren't deceiving her, resembled Sonic.

Rouge shivered.

The prospect of the dead blue hero hanging around and _haunting _her team chilled her, despite knowing that the hedgehog had never been the vengeful type. Still… he could be angry that his death (as well as the others that followed) was going unavenged, the creature responsible already attempting to claim another victim.

Another thought occurred to her.

'_If that really is Sonic hanging around… then that must mean Mephiles' _other_ victims are hanging around somewhere!'_

The thought made her nervous, so much so that she cast suspicious glances around her to make certain there really were no vengeful spirits lurking about.

This led her back to the sight of the faint blue outline she was sure was Sonic.

Ghost hunting temporarily forgotten, she squinted at him to magnify her focus, but this only blurred him further. Then she unfocused her eyes, and this time it gave her a much clearer picture of the murdered hero, causing her breath to hitch.

It was Sonic alright. She would recognise his cobalt fur anywhere.

Not only that, his ethereal body was covered in the same injuries that his corpse had.

The bloody hole in his stomach glared out at her, bringing an unhappy gurgling of her stomach, promising that her dinner would make a return.

Sensing her gaze, Sonic's transparent emerald eyes locked with her corporal aquamarine, broadcasting his sadness. Fear caused her heart to thud at an insanely fast tempo, yet she managed to swallow the dryness from her throat and whisper, "Blue?"

At first he seemed surprised, but then a faint smile twitched at the corner of his mouth. _'Hey Rouge.'_

Her knees felt weak. _'Oh my god… I'm talking to a ghost… _Sonic's _ghost!'_

He chuckled at the look on her face, _'Don't worry. I won't hurt you, Rouge. You know I'm a nice guy.' _he added a wink and Rouge calmed somewhat, giving the ghost a faint smile.

"So… you can see the faker, too."

The bat startled slightly at the unexpectedness of Shadow's voice. "Ah… y-yes."

For a few moments, neither member of Team Dark said anything. Simply keeping their eyes locked.

Sonic's obnoxious sing-song voice eventually broke the silence with a drawn out, _'Awkwaaaaard~!' _

Shadow snorted and shook his head. "Shut up, faker." he grunted before switching his focus back to Silver.

The dead hero rolled his eyes and loudly whispered to Rouge, _'Hey, I think you've got competition!'_

Almost instantaneously, Shadow's voice snarled, "I heard that, idiot!"

The ghost-hog grinned impishly while Rouge rolled her eyes, a slight smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth.

* * *

_Unlike Rouge and Sonic, all was not light banter and joking for Silver._

_The psychokinetic was instead faced with the intense and dangerous struggle for dominance of his mind against Mephiles. And the odds were beginning to tip out of his favour._

_At first he and the shadow manipulator were evenly matched. _

_Then he had begun to push the demon back. _

_Although, this did not last long and in the blink of an eye, the tables had turned and Silver found himself, once more, on the losing side of their intense battle. And it appeared to be the end._

_Eyes glinting with pure malice and sick enjoyment, Mephiles brought back his right hand, quickly slapping the back of it against Silver's face. _

_His head snapped to the side from the sheer force of it, bloody spittle flying from his mouth and staining the odd liquid ground. _

_Silver moaned, dazed and dizzy from the pain of the blow, his other injuries beginning to throb along with his face._

_Mephiles' other hand, which was holding him up by his chest fur, tightened._

'He's going to hit me with his other hand again…' _the albino thought, hazily._

_Sure enough, crystalline fingers were soon slashing at his already painful injuries, deepening them and forcing shrill cries of pain from his throat. Below him, a puddle of red was slowly expanding._

_And through it all, Mephiles laughed._

_Crazy. Maniacal. Insane. Echoing everywhere. Around him. Inside his head. _

_So disorientating that it felt like the laughter _was_ him._

_The slashing stopped abruptly, and Silver couldn't help but release a thankful little whimper._

_However, his thankfulness was to be short lived. _

_Mephiles hefted him off the ground until his feet dangled uselessly in midair. _

_The abomination set his nose close to Silver's and sneered into his face, __**"It has been fun, Silver. But I am afraid that our little game is about to come to an end."**_

_The albino could only summon enough energy to cough weakly._

_Mephiles sighed with mock sadness. __**"And I was so enjoying this game… Ah well."**_

_Before his pain fogged mind could properly register what was happening, Mephiles slammed Silver's head into the ground, which splashed noisily and sent miniature fireworks of dark liquid flying._

_Below the liquid ground's solid façade, it was freezing._

_Silver's mouth opened with a scream. _

_Despite choking on the thick wateriness around his face, his voice was somewhat clear, only slightly muffled by underwater distortion. A large cloud of bubbles escaped his open mouth, quickly flying away for the surface._

_The coldness was beginning to make his head go numb, and he felt himself slipping into blackness._

_In a panic, he put his hands onto the 'ground' on either side of his head and began trying to wrench himself out._

_More of Mephiles' horrible, evil laughter echoed about him and Silver increased his struggles for freedom, scrawny arms pushing with all their might._

_Above him, Mephiles shook his head, appearing almost disappointed. __**"And with this I believe that it is now…" **__he said, raising a now non-crystallized foot, __**"Game. Set. And match."**_

_And with that, Mephiles booted Silver up the backside, sending him plunging into the dark watery depths below._

_The last thing the hedgehog heard as the numbingly chilly iciness and unconsciousness enveloped him was Mephiles' horrible silky voice calling down at him, __**"Thank you kindly for the body, Silver. It will serve just nicely for my intentions."**_

_A single tear escaped his eye, and his last thoughts flew to his lost friend and unrequited love. _'I'm sorry Blaze… I failed. Please… forgive me. I lo-'

_And then he faded into the darkness._

* * *

Silver's body had finally ceased it's pained spasming.

After seeing it in constant motion for such a long time it's eerie, almost deathly, stillness unnerved the two organic members of Team Dark.

Omega seemed to be on high alert. _Extremely _high alert.

One of his arms quickly transformed into its machinegun state, and the many barrels that made up the weapon were pointed directly at Silver's head. "Danger." he droned, "Presence of Mephiles the Dark: strong. Threat level: maximum."

Rouge and Shadow exchanged worried glances.

"No…" Shadow murmured, disbelieving, "The kid… lost?"

Rouge glanced down at the still albino, numb.

"He's Mephiles' puppet now…" she whispered, tears springing to her eyes at the unfairness of it all. For Christ's sake, Silver was just a _kid_.

Omega took a single, clanking step forward. "Permission to neutralize threat?" the cold robotic voice inquired.

Shadow's streaked head snapped in his direction. "_No_! We may be wrong! Mephiles might not have won!"

The eyes of the bat, dead hedgehog and robot were now fixed on him; the organics', living and dead, filled with sadness.

'_Shadow… I think we all know that those are just empty words.' _Sonic said, shaking his head softly. _'Silver's gone and your 'bot buddy's got a point.'_

"_Being_?" the living hedgehog spat.

The ghost-hog stared at his feet. _'… It… it might be better to kill him now. Before Mephiles makes him do something he's gonna regret later.'_

Both living Mobians stared at the dead one with disbelief.

Sonic the hedgehog telling them to _kill _a friend? It was unheard of!

The ebony and crimson streaked hedgehog took a step backwards, shaking his head. "You… you're off your rocker, faker."

Sonic's usually pleasant (or more recently, sad) features hardened. _'No Shadow. I'm _dead_."_

"Yes. Just like these three are soon to be."

Three heads and one pair of vermillion optical sensors snapped towards the voice.

Familiar, but contorted by the evil possessing its owner.

Silver's body sat upright, shoulders hunched slightly. A triumphant smirk was plastered to his muzzle and his eyes were half-lidded.

And yet, this did not conceal the malevolent reptilian eyes that glittered with glee, staring straight at the stunned foursome.

Slowly, the Mephiles possessed Silver rose to his feet, dusting imaginary dirt from his fur, which was now a few shades darker.

Once fully erect, he held a hand in front of his face, observing the now deep purple lines of Silver's gloves and cuffs. Satisfied, he removed his gaze from Silver's hand to Shadow's face.

His smirk grew as he locked eyes with the frozen hedgehog and he emitted a low dark chuckle. "Well. This is sure to be… entertaining." he purred, spreading out his slowly crystallizing arms.

* * *

**A/N: Damn it Ghostking! You got the Silver possession idea up in your fic before I could!XD**

**This, I have to say, has been one of my utmost favourite chapters that I've written. To be honest, the whole idea for this fic centered on the upcoming battle of Mephiles in Silver versus Team Dark. The idea was brought to fruition when I told my sister about it, admitting that I wanted to turn it into a fanfic.**

**She strongly urged me to do so and thus, The Darkness Returns was born!**

**Uh... I guess the explaination about Mephiles using the emerald instead of his powers will have to wait until the last chapter. That's right...**

**LAST. CHAPTER.**

******It's actually not much longer 'till the end. Just two more chapters!D,:**

******Fear not, though. I plan to make these last two something to remember. *Pulls a knowing smirk***

******Until next time, guys~!^^ **


	11. 10: Putting a Stop to the Madness

**A/N: Phew! I actually managed to finish this within a couple of days! I'm pretty surprised but EXTREMELY proud of myself.^^ This, by far, will be the best. Chapter. Evar!XD**

**It's chock full of action, and I LOVE it!X3**

**Since this one went so well, I'm eager to create more major fight scenes like it in the near future.**

**Oh, by the way. DOUBLE WHAMMY! I'm hitting you all with the last two chapters, so eplease, enjoy the last moments of The Darkness Returns!^_^**

**But I'm sure you're all eager to see the epic-ness contained within both chapters (Actually just this one. The last one's an actionless epilogue... Boo!XD) so I won't hold you back any longer...**

**Read on~!**

* * *

**The Darkness Returns**

**Putting a Stop to the Madness**

At first, nobody moved.

Mephiles' victory against Silver had shocked them all, even the robot.

As the hedgehog's body began to harden and sharpen with crystallization, Mephiles threw back his head and laughed, giddy with triumph and glee. So much so, that even the harsh bloody coughing associated with recoil didn't affect him as much as it should.

Only as the sound escaped him did any of them return to their senses, quickly assuming fighting stances. By then, Silver's body was transformed. Hardened by dagger sharp crystals.

Mephiles lifted a hand to his face, observing his pointy fingers as they clicked against each other. Smirking, he ran the hand through Silver's bizarre quills, feeling that they were hardened; the ends splitting slightly with crystallization. Transformation complete.

The robot, Omega, raised his arm; the one transformed into a machinegun, and aimed it at Silver's forehead. "Permission to neutralize threat?"

The abomination possessed hedgehog's mouth split into a leering grin, revealing teeth that appeared sharper than normal and flecked with blood.

Shadow's legs bent; a runner's position. "Maim. Don't kill."

The bat girl crouched and spread her wings, scowling defiantly, despite her fear.

Mephiles threw back his head and laughed again. Loud. Howling. Animal.

The gun whirred. "Affirmative."

At once, the possessed hedgehog's head snapped back down, the demonic grin stretching further up the sides of his muzzle, and lunged for Team Dark.

* * *

The slow start-up of Omega's gun finally finished, and a barrage of lead pellets were fired, whistling as they sliced through the air, leaving behind an almost visible streamline. Mephiles merely raised a hand, lazily batting it sideways like a cat toying with a mouse. It glowed deep purple, as did the bullets, which were sent hurtling to the side, useless. Unperturbed, Omega continued to fire and raised his other arm, which was quickly transforming into another weapon.

Mephiles continued to sweep his hand from side to side, clearing a path towards the robot, but was forced to leap out of the way as a rocket whooshed past, exploding where he had been only a moment earlier. A white blur suddenly rushed at him from the left. The bat girl.

She flew at him, body coiled for a spinning kick, but Mephiles halted the attack with a swift kick of his own to her stomach. She immediately fell at his feet and doubled over, coughing, with a thin trail of saliva trailing from the corner of her mouth.

Laughing maniacally, Mephiles wound up Silver's leg for another kick, this one aimed at her ribs. More bullets were fired his way, so he was forced to leap away… into Shadow's trajectory.

The streaked hedgehog's lips were peeled back into a snarl as he hurled a crackling spear of Chaos energy at the crystallized albino.

Mephiles barely managed to twist out of the way of the projectile, receiving a light scratch on the shoulder for his troubles. With an irritable growl, the abomination slapped his hated foe away with a wave of twisted, purple psychokinesis, sending him flying.

As soon as his booted feet hit the ground, he dashed to the side, avoiding another of Omega's rockets. Yet another was fired his way and Mephiles leapt into the air, the hot air of the exploding weapon propelling him higher, like a thermal. Mephiles soared for the robot, propelled forward by his twisted psychokinesis, and slashed at Omega's large chest with his claws, creating an awful screeching noise. One of the robot's clawed hands, the former rocket launcher, clamped over his body before he could retreat, mercilessly squeezing his thin, crystalline frame.

"I will break you, Mephiles the Dark." the machine's cold drone told the struggling and snarling abomination. "Regardless of your possession of the white hedgehog's body."

Mephiles spat some reddened saliva at his optical sensors. "I care not for your petty threats, robot!" he snarled, "And the only thing broken will be _you_!"

Before Omega could process what was happening, a cry ripped itself from Silver's possessed throat, shortly before the dark crystals adorning his body skewered outwards, some punching through the robot's tough exterior. But instead of letting him go, the robot's grip tightened, making Silver's ribs creak under the pressure. Mephiles howled with indignant rage, tossing his vassal's head about and wriggling his body to try and escape. Just when the hedgehog's ribs were at breaking point, Mephiles ripped the robot's hand off with his newly acquired psychokinetic powers, sending both himself and his metallic restraint, crashing to the ground.

Despite being detached from its owner, the metal hand remained clamped, vice like, around Silver's thin body. With a grunt, Mephiles pried away each clawed finger with purple psychokinesis and, once free, crawled away before Omega could stomp on him. He scrambled to his feet and was in time to receive a heart plated boot to the stomach, which stole the air from his lungs with an undignified 'oof' noise as he fell at Rouge's feet.

"How ironic's fate _now_, creep?" the bat girl growled, planting a foot on the downed abomination's side and grinding in the heel.

"Rouge!"  
But Shadow's cry came too late.

Mephiles grasped the bat's other foot and yanked it out from under her, causing her to topple onto her back with a yelp.

"I'd say…" Mephiles panted, quickly straddling her to the ground, "Not ironic _enough_."

He reeled back a clawed hand, savage glee contorting Silver's once gentle features into a horrible mask, and backhanded her, much as he had done to Silver during their mental clash. Just like the hedgehog, her head snapped painfully to the side, bloody droplets staining the ground.

Insane laughter filled the humid air as Mephiles flexed his crystalline claws, which were now poised above her heart. "I was going to save you for more… perverted desires, but now I think that I will simply kill you. You are merely another nuisance for me to dispose of."

Rouge twisted her head to look back up at him and spat, "Go to hell, _you twisted son of a bitch_!"

Before Mephiles could respond with equal venom, something dark and round slammed into his side, making him go airborne.

Something cracked.

He landed roughly on his less crushed side, eyes wide and mouth parted in a soundless scream of pain, allowing blood to escape in a small red waterfall along with a faint wheeze.

Shadow uncurled from the Homing Attack and gently helped Rouge sit up. "You ok?"

She coughed and spit bloody saliva to the side. "Peachy." she said sarcastically. He smirked.

"If you're well enough to be sarcastic, you can stand. Here."

The she bat sighed and grasped his offered hand, allowing him to pull her to her feet.

After giving her quickly swelling face a once-over, Shadow called over to his other team member, "How're you doing over there, Omega?"

The walking arsenal was shoving his detached hand back into place, his efforts punctuated with a few unhappy clicking and whirring noises. "Damage: minimal." he answered, giving his hand one final rough shove, clicking it into place. The large tears in his armour said otherwise, although, despite looking bad, the marks weren't as bad as they could've been, since none of his important circuitry was damaged.

Shadow smiled thinly. "Good. We'll need all our strength to take down Mephiles. That being said…" he removed the backpack from his back, pulling out a couple of clips of pistol ammo, which he pushed into the cuffs off his shoes and gloves, then took out the weapons themselves. He twirled the weapons a few times by the triggers before stopping and clicking off the safety of both of them. His crimson eyes narrowed at the Mephiles possessed Silver, who was shakily pushing himself onto his hands and knees. "Let's go, Team Dark."

* * *

Mephiles spat blood from Silver's mouth, running his tongue over sharp teeth.

Things didn't appear to be going as smoothly for him as he had originally thought.

'_I don't care. I'll twist things into my favour. One way or another!'_

As he gained his feet, Mephiles catalogued the injuries Silver's body had sustained thus far.

'_The slash on his shoulder is minimal, but the robot's grip made his ribs tender. And I'm certain Shadow broke a few of them on the left with that attack just now…' _his crystal fists curled, the pointed talons of his fingers digging into skin. _ 'I cannot afford his body to give up on me. It is _pivotal _for the success of my plan. And if they somehow force me out… No. I need to play my cards carefully. This will be risky but worth it on the off chance I _am _forced out.'_

Shadow and his allies were heading straight for him, the robot and bat breaking off and running at him from either side. Mephiles scowled, grinding Silver's pointy teeth, as he summoned the purple Chaos Emerald into his open palm. His mouth moved frantically, tripping a few times over the words he was saying, due to his unfamiliarity with the facial feature, to ask two things of the mystical gem.

First, to heal his wounds. And second, to establish his fail-safe.

Within the dark depths of his chilly, wet mental prison, Silver stirred.

Before the captive albino could do anything beyond opening his bleary eyes, Mephiles pushed him further into the pit of his own mind, effectively drowning him in more darkness.

He did not stir a second time.

With a painful crack, his broken ribs knitted back together, signifying that the Emerald was doing its job. And not a moment too soon.

Smirking, he jumped backwards at the precise moment all three members of Team Dark leapt for him, amused at the thought that they would be butting heads.

"Ammo formation!" the bat girl cried, to which Shadow nodded his head.

Mephiles frowned. _'Ammo formation?'_

The robot raised its arms, the clawed hands retreating until all that remained were twin empty chambers. Meanwhile, his organic teammates had curled into balls and were soaring for the robot's hollowed out arms. This caused Mephiles' brow to crease with puzzlement. _'… What is the purpose of that?'_

The rapidly spinning balls that were Rouge and Shadow slotted snugly into both of the robot's empty arm chambers. And then Mephiles understood.

"Wha-?! You are _insane_!" he yelled to the Mobians turned living ammunition.

Omega's large torso twisted seamlessly to face him and he raised both cannon arms. "Target acquired. Commencing fire." the usual drone sounded like it was faintly tinged with… excitement, something impossible for a robot.

Before the abomination had time to ponder this, one of the cannons was fired.

Mephiles dodged Rouge's compressed body as she hurtled past, narrowly avoiding her, but was unable to twist away from Shadow. The robot must have fired him a half second later in order to catch him as he dodged the first attack.

The dark hedgehog slammed into his chest, sending him sprawling over the ground, clutching at the injured area. Before he could move, the bat girl soared above him, bathing him in shadow, and executed a screw kick.

Panicking, Mephiles threw up a hand, pushing her away with purple psychokinesis, before scrambling to his feet and doing the same to an approaching Shadow.

The hedgehog's feet skidded against the ground, the attack flimsy due to Mephiles' haste, and uncrossed his arms from his face, pointing the guns at Silver's possessed body. He winced at the thought of what he was about to do.

'_Forgive me, kid. This is gonna hurt.'_

With loud twin bangs that merged into one ear-popping noise, the pistols spat out a pair of bullets.

A scream ripped out of Silver's possessed throat, the same time twin roses of scarlet bloomed on his pale pelt. He bent double, coughing up more of his precious ruby life.

Shadow grit his teeth. _'Damn! Didn't mean to hit anything vital…'_

Shrugging it off with a muttered 'can't be helped', Shadow dashed forward, firing off more shots, but conscious of aiming for less vital spots this time.

Despite this, another shot planted itself into the crystallized 'hog's stomach, a little ways away from the last two shots. The others either went wide or grazed his arms and legs.

"_Enough_!" Mephiles shrieked, frantically slicing a palm through the air. It glowed purple, as did Shadow, who was sent hurtling into a building.

"Shadz!"

Ignoring the bat girl running to his enemy's aid, Mephiles shakily picked up the purple Chaos Emerald at his feet, dropped at the initial shock of the pain the bullets brought. The urge to cough was terrible, so he brought his empty palm to his mouth and obliged the need.

Warm wetness splattered against his hand.

He grit pointed teeth, feeling that they were also sticky with blood, and asked the Emerald to heal him again. The pain was ten times more excruciating than last time, as the bullets had to be forced back out of Silver's flesh before it could be healed.

Tink. Ting ting.

The bullets clattered harmlessly at his feet, the feeling of muscle tissue stitching itself back together following the sounds.

* * *

"Shadow! Are you ok?"

The Ultimate Lifeform turned his head to the side and spat before answering. "Of course. But listen, I've got a plan."

Rouge crouched next to him. "Sure thing, big guy. Let's hear it."

He pushed himself onto his elbows, flicking off small pieces of destroyed building from his chest fur, then locked gazes with her. "I'm going to get Omega to shoot at Silver's hand." he said, gesturing at said possessed hedgehog. "I want you to nab the Emerald and fly as high as you can. Try to get out of range of his psychokinesis."

The jewel thief nodded, "Consider it done. But what about you? What's your part in this scheme?"

Shadow pointed at his discarded backpack in the not-so-far distance. "I need to get to that. There's a couple of items in there that'll come in handy."

Rouge cocked a brow. "Such as…?"

The streaked hedgehog shook his head. "No time. You'll know when you see them."

She pouted but nodded with acceptance. "Fine. When do we set this thing to motion?"

"Now." he said, smiling grimly, then face hardening abruptly as he yelled to their robot comrade, "Omega! Aim and fire near priority two target!"

One clunky arm came up, converting to an already whirring machine gun. Both heard the somewhat faint 'affirmative' seconds before the deafening hail of bullets were fired.

Taking her cue, Rouge ran back towards the action, leaping into the air and snapping open her wings to get there faster.

Shadow watched from his debris throne, the grim smile returning to his face. "Let's just hope this works…" he muttered, clambering to his feet.

* * *

The bullets Omega fired near Mephiles' hand hurtled by with such ferocity that the abomination released a startled yelp, the Emerald leaping from his hands and striking the ground with a couple of gentle 'tink' noises as he leapt backwards, away from the lead barrage, which stopped as abruptly as it had started.

Confusion and fear making the blood rush to Silver's head, Mephiles' reptilian gaze snapped to the robot responsible. Omega stared back, folding away the machinegun and replacing it with a shiny metal hand.

He clenched pointed nails into both empty palms.

'_Empty?'_

Realization quickly dawned on him, his head snapping to look back at the temporarily lost gem, sparkling obliviously where he had dropped it. With a frantic and garbled exclamation of something vaguely resembling the word 'no', he dashed for the Chaos Emerald…

But received a heart plated boot to the back of the head.

He crumpled over, stunned, allowing a grinning Rouge to bypass him and subsequently snatch up the gem and take to the sky.

"Sorry, Mephy-boy!" she called down, tossing and catching the Emerald a few times, "But this little baby's all mine~!"

To emphasize this point, she planted a kiss on the gem's glowing surface.

* * *

Shadow slapped a palm to his forehead. "Idiot." he growled under his breath before resuming his search through the backpack.

'_Better hurry it up, Shadow. That psychotic jerk's getting up again and I gotta say… he looks _pissed_!'_

"_I know_! I'm doing the best I can, Faker!"

'_Well do better!'_

"Just shut it! Ah. There, I've got it!" he turned, showing Sonic the small but unearthly shape that was the Scepter of Darkness. The second object, a pair of handcuffs exuding the same unearthly chill as the Scepter, were picked up from where they lay next to his foot.

The ghost-hog stared at him, mouth drawn down at the corners in a frown. _'And you're sure those little things are gonna work on him?'_

Shadow's hands clenched around the objects he held, feeling their pointy and chilling surfaces through his soiled gloves. "More or less. He's weaselled his way out of the Scepter a few times though… that's why the cuffs are my trump card."

Sonic released a long sigh before staring intently into Shadow's eyes. _'Just… make sure you take care of it, alright? So we can all rest in peace.'_

Before he had a chance to ask who 'we' was, the voices returned.

He flinched, but found that they weren't making his head throb painfully. Not only that, he could distinguish the owners of each voice and their whispered words of encouragement.

'_Please. Take down that creep, Shadow.' _Tails.

'_Yeah. Sock 'im a good one for me!'_ Knuckles.

'_Do it for us… otherwise me and my hammer will start paying you visits!' _Amy.

'_Go get him, Shadow! We're rooting for ya!' _Vector.

'_Spare no expense and vanquish that demon.' _Espio.

'_Yeah! Take down that bad guy!' _Charmy.

The words of the dead caressed his mind with a gentle embrace, filling him with a strong resolve and determination to set things right. He glanced back at Sonic, offering him a firm nod.

The dead hedgehog grinned. _'Atta boy, Shadow! Now go on… Take him out!'_

He was more than happy to oblige. Especially when one more voice spoke up, quieter than the rest but no less important. In fact, probably more so.

'_Shadow… do your best.'_

The hedgehog raised his face to the burning Crisis City sun and closed his eyes.

'_Yes. I promise you… Maria.'_

And with the words of the dead spurring him on, Shadow activated his skates and rushed to rejoin the battle.

* * *

"You'll have to do better than that, crystal pot-head!" Rouge jeered, dodging another knife of psychokinetic energy.

Mephiles undignified response was an enraged scream of, "Stay _still_!"

He also threw another so-called 'Psychic Knife' at her, which she, maddeningly, dodged.

"Aw… So close~!" the jewel thief taunted, giving the Emerald a quick toss.

Despite her bravado, she was starting to feel the beginnings of fatigue.

She could keep this up for probably another fifteen minutes, twenty tops, before she would really start to feel the burn.

Rouge spared a glance over at Shadow, who was starting to skate over to her aid, and released a heavy sigh of relief.

A horrible, wrathful scream below her instantly brought her attention back to Mephiles.

She could do little more than allow her aquamarine eyes to widen and pray that she would be fast enough to dodge the worst of the attack from the abomination flying straight for her, claws outstretched, like a speeding bullet.

The she bat twirled to the left like an aerial ballerina, but crystallized claws still slashed across the side of her cat suit, shredding a ragged diagonal line from the very edge of her hip to just a little under the heart plate protecting her chest. A pained cry tore out of her throat as pain flared from the skin in the area, which was becoming slick with blood.

'_The damn bastard got me!'_

She grit her teeth and pressed a palm over the middle of the long wound, immediately feeing it dampen the fabric of her glove.

The now levitating Mephiles turned to face her, leering whilst he _licked her blood_ from his fingers.

Rouge's lip curled with disgust. _'Sheesh… That's creepy enough without him using Silver's face!'_

Shadow's voice, now directly below her, caught her attention. "Rouge! Catch!"

Her body moved before her eyes, wings tucking close to her back so she could drop and meet whatever it was she was supposed to catch.

Her eyes locked onto the prize and her empty hand stretched out for it, a smirk crossing her features. _'So _this_ is what you requested of the Commander! Shadow, you cunning hedgehog.'_

"_No_!" Mephiles screamed, plunging after her, "I will _kill_ you before I allow you to use _that_!"

The jewel thief ignored him, now close enough to begin seeing the jagged crystalline surface of the Scepter of Darkness as the distance was rapidly closed, further spurring her on.

"VEER LEFT!" Shadow hollered at the same time Mephiles screamed directly behind her,

"_DIE_!"

In one quick and fluid movement, she half-spread her wings and barrel-rolled to the left, only receiving a minimal scratch on the cheek instead of another horrible, and likely fatal, claw mark.

As she fully unfurled her wings and hovered in place to get her bearings, Mephiles dived past, taloned hands grasping for the Scepter.

Panicking at the thought that the object was quickly going to be lost, Shadow hastily drew one of his .9mm's, firing off a bunch of rounds around the sides of the object and at Silver's possessed face, having temporarily forgotten that he _wasn't_ trying to kill him.

He needn't have even worried; the purple psychokinesis covering the crystallized albino was like a shield of rain, making the bullets slide away like dirt from its surface before any harm was done.

Shadow quickly ended up with an empty chamber and, instead of wasting time reloading, threw it as hard as he could at the Scepter.

The desired, almost comical, effect was achieved.

The butt of the pistol smacked the Scepter dead centre, pushing it upwards and away from Mephiles' hands so that it instead struck his forehead. The force sent his head jerking backwards, body losing the purple coating of twisted psychokinesis and following soon after.

Before Shadow could bark the order at her, Rouge made a beeline for the Scepter of Darkness, easily snatching it from the air with her free hand and turning in place to stare down at Shadow.

She grinned and waved it at him.

He returned the gesture then pointed at the falling Mephiles.

Rouge saluted him with the hand holding the Scepter. Then she tossed him the Chaos Emerald, which he caught one handed, before flying after Mephiles.

* * *

_Golden eyes opened drowsily, seeing naught but darkness for as far as the eye could see._

_Blink. Blink._

'… Where… am I?'

_Silver attempted to lift a hand to rub at his stomach, which stung, in a weirdly distant way, in at least three places. The same feeling was throbbing gently at his forehead, right shoulder and ribs, particularly those on the left, but it was less insistent. His arm, strangely, felt like it was moving through syrup; slow and laborious. In fact, his whole body felt too heavy._

_He frowned, hazily wondering why this was the case._

_Images danced across his lids, too fast and too numerous for his dazed self to make any sense of them and the emotions they brought with them. The only thing he was able to gather was that there was pain associated with the images; lots of it. _

_The drowsiness began creeping back up on him, whispering lulling words that made his eyelids droop again, despite his wanting to think._

_He pushed it back, forcefully, and found his thoughts instantly become clearer._

_The images were no longer speeding by, too fast for him to catch. Now they made sense, and with growing horror, he pieced them together._

_Mephiles had told him he was going to reunite him with Blaze._

_He had accepted, but the conniving half god took advantage of his trust, invading his body._

_Then the battle for dominance. The one that he lost._

_His butt throbbed at the memory of Mephiles booting him below the 'ground', where he was now captive in its smothering wet blackness._

_Other images began creeping in. These he did not remember partaking in._

_Silver frowned. _'When on Mobius did Shadow, the bat woman and the robot come to Crisis City?' _The frown deepened, quickly turning into an expression of disbelieving horror. _'Wait. Am I… _fighting _them? No way! When did that happen?!'

_Still the 'forgotten' memories came._

_Dodging bullets and rockets._

_Laughter that sounded like his, but horribly warped into a noise that made his fur stand on end at the cruelty and malice that filled it._

_Claws raking through both skin and metal._

_The purple Chaos Emerald, clenched tightly in a clawed crystalline hand._

_And the blood._

_Oh! So much blood!_

_It snaked down his mouth and nostrils, dripped down his pelt and was coughed into his hand. So vividly red. It was frightening._

_Silver began to tremble uncontrollably; the meaning behind these so-called 'forgotten' memories clicking into place._

_Mephiles hadn't just shoved him into the darkest depths of his mind… He'd taken complete control of his body and used it to attack Shadow and his comrades! There was a reason for this, he was sure. But what was it?_

'Why? Why does he need my body?'

_Hesitantly, he branched his awareness out, seeking the answer to his question. First a tiny inch at a time, then a couple of centimetres, until eventually he stopped, just beyond the threshold of his goopy dark prison. _

_Cautiously, his awareness breached the barrier, gently probing at the mind of the presence above._

_Mephiles._

_Scared but determined to get his answer, a tiny finger of Silver's awareness slipped into the abomination's innermost thoughts._

'What do you need my body for?'

_At once, a hyper realistic image of a fiery landscape, like Crisis City but with giant walls of raging flames all around, painted itself across his closed eyelids._

_**Standing atop a cliff that looked sickeningly familiar, was an equally familiar figure in purple.**_

_**Slowly, Blaze turned in his direction.**_

_Silver recoiled._

_**Her face was twisted into a horribly sharp-toothed grin that almost reached the corners of her muzzle. And her eyes. **_

_**They weren't their usual warm amber. They were**_**-**

_An enraged snarl emanating from Mephiles, standing above his prison, broke the vision._

_It didn't matter, he had seen her eyes._

'No. Those aren't Blaze's eyes…' _he thought grimly, _'They belong to _Iblis_!'

_His plan. Mephiles' plan was-_

"_**How **__dare__** you?! Filthy mortal, I'll tear your soul to pieces!" **_

_Silver yelped and clumsily swam away through the darkness, away from the dark spear of Chaos energy skewering through his prison and stabbing at the spot he had just vacated._

_As he dodged more furious beams of energy, one thought drove him forward._

'I need to warn them! They need to stop Mephiles before he can do _that_!'

_Thoughts clouded by a haze of fury, Mephiles didn't realize that Silver was gradually making his way back to the surface until the albino's hand grasped his ankle._

_With an exclamation of surprise, the abomination was yanked down into Silver's dark prison to take his place. The white hedgehog planted a boot into his former captor's face, using it as a foothold while sending the shadow manipulator plunging into the darkness._

_Once out, he closed his eyes and took a deep calming breath._

"_**Ok… gotta make this count."**_

_Silver opened his mouth-_

-and screamed, the injuries Mephiles had 'gifted' him with burning mercilessly.

A metallic tang was present in his mouth and he knew without a doubt that it was the same liquid that was oozing from the three bullet wounds in his stomach.

"Wh-what the?!"

A female voice. The she bat.

'_Gotta warn them. Quickly, Silver, quickly!'_

He forced open his eyes.

* * *

Aquamarine eyes widened and the Scepter of Darkness tumbled from their owner's hand. "Holy shi-"

Golden eyes, moist with pained tears sought hers. "G-get me d-down. Quick." Silver croaked, in a voice that was hoarse and only just audible.

The crystals still coated him and his sclera were still the deep wine colour of Mephiles', but there was no mistaking the buttery yellow eyes and the badly quaking, but distortion-free, voice.

The jewel thief nodded and gripped him under the armpits, tucking in her wings for a much faster descent.

"Hurry…" the hedgehog whispered weakly, "I d-d-don't know how much lo-longer I can… h-hold him off."

"I know. Just hang in there, sweetie, you're doing good." she encouraged, whipping out her wings again to glide gently down for the last three or so metres.

Silver whimpered softly, squeezing his eyes tightly closed and clenching his abnormally pointy teeth.

"Rouge! What's going on?!" Shadow called as he skated over, Omega in tow.

The bat gently set Silver's booted feet on the ground, her own following suit. He swayed and started falling forward, but she hauled him backwards so his face didn't smash against the concrete.

He moaned and clutched a clawed hand to his temple and Rouge thought she caught him mumbling under his breath. Something along the lines of: "No… Not now. I need more time… Stay back!"

Shadow skidded to a stop near the two of them. "Lay him down." he ordered, seeing the little orbs of gold shining through Silver's pain-slitted eyes and understanding the situation.

Rouge obliged, slowly tilting the albino backwards until she had his back and head rested against the ground, at which point she stood next to a crouching Shadow.

"He's got something to tell us." she told the streaked hedgehog, "But he hasn't got much time."

'_Until Mephiles seizes control again.' _he filled in, nodding curtly. "Ok. Let's hear it, kid."

Silver's clawed hands curled into fists, his breathing becoming frantic and more ragged, and when he opened his mouth to warn them of what he knew, only a jerky gasping sob escaped him.

Shadow closed a hand over his shoulder. Firm. Calm. Comforting.

"It's ok, Silver. We're here for you." he said quietly, squeezing the albino's shoulder slightly.

We.

Himself and his two team members.

And the dead. Clustered around them all; transparent faces solemn but intent.

Tears slid from Silver's eyes and he shook his head, voice hitching with slight sobs as he said, "I-I… No time… He's…"

Shadow's grip tightened in desperation. "Just try. Please Silver we need to know what-"

The albino's gaze snapped to the handcuffs dangling from the Ultimate Lifeform's other hand. "Those… Put those on me. _Now_!"

The streaked hedgehog flinched slightly at the younger's shrill words. "But you haven't-"

"_Do it_! H-he's pushing me back and I don't wanna hurt you all any-" his words were lost in a fit of strangled half screams and violent thrashing. His eyes flickered between two colours.

Green. Yellow. Green. Yellow.

A sick Ping-Pong clash between the two.

Gritting his teeth, Shadow slapped the first cuff over the wrist closest to him, reaching over and clicking the other one into place at the precise moment Silver's eyes stopped flashing.

Green.

They'd lost him.

* * *

**A/N: ****Poor Silvy...**

**Oh god, I'm so terrible! I just know you guys are gonna send me on another round of guilt trips!XD**

**Well then... shall we move on to the epilogue?**


	12. Finale: Blurry Future

**A/N: That's right guys. This the last, I repeat, the LAST chapter of The Darkness Returns!**

**Terrible, isn't it?:,(**

**Well... all things must draw to a close and sadly, this is the end of The Darkness Returns.**

**But read my final author's at the end of this (incredibly short) epilogue... you'll be in for a pleasent surprise~!:)**

**Now... finish what you started, guys!**

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**The Darkness Returns**

**Blurry Future**

White. Everywhere.

Such a vast space.

So blank.

Perfect for the purpose of keeping Mephiles contained.

"Put him there." Shadow ordered, jerking his head towards a spot a little ways away from him.

Omega obliged, clunking past the hedgehog and setting his quarry down.

Silver's body. Crystallized and possessed by Mephiles.

His muzzle was pale and he was a little dizzy from blood loss; the sources roughly bandaged with Rouge's torn up gloves ("Use 'em." she had said with a slight chuckle. "I've got a hundred other pairs."), the white fabric already stained dark crimson. Despite this, the abomination smirked arrogantly at the three of them.

"I do hope you realize that I won't be staying here for long."

Shadow just shook his head. "I don't care. This dimension's filled with nothing but endless white. There's nowhere to escape to no matter how far you make Silver's body stumble." his crimson gaze flicked to the crystalline albino's glove-bandaged stomach and shackled wrists. "Even then, you won't be getting very far. Not in that state."

"We shall see." Mephiles sneered, reclining awkwardly against the featureless ground that was barely distinguishable from anything else in the blank dimension.

"Yeah. That's right creep, get comfy." Rouge muttered from somewhere behind Shadow as she turned and stated walking back for the still swirling rift that was Chaos Control, Omega clunking alongside her.

The Ultimate Lifeform turned on his heel and followed after them, only pausing once to look back over his shoulder at the abomination possessed hedgehog. "Don't worry, Silver. We'll find a way to get that spineless freak out of you… I promise."

Mephiles twitched Silver's lips into a sharp toothed grin. "Yes. Good luck with that fool's errand, Shadow."

The streaked hedgehog merely shot him a contemptuous glare before leaping through the Chaos Control with Rouge and Omega, leaving Mephiles alone in his white prison.

The grin stretched further up the corner's of Silver's muzzle, almost appearing to split it in half. "I'll see you soon… kitty cat." he told the blankness.

And then he threw back his head and howled with insane laughter.

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**A/N: Dun dun DUUUUUUUUN! **

**Yeah, I know what you're all thinking: 'THAT'S THE END?! REALLY, BITE?!'**

**Well yes, it is... of The Darkness RETURNS anyway.**

**Yeah. That's right guys... There's gonna be... A SEQUAL!XD**

**So, keep an eye out for it. It'll be titled: The Darkness Pursues. I'll set to work on it soon, too.;)**

**Okay. Now it's time for the acknowledgements and thanks (Please don't get mad if I don't list your username specifically!). Strap yourselves in, this is gonna take awhile...**

**Ok, the first person on the list is Lordoftheghostking28. She was my first reviewer for this fic (And not just one, but MULTIPLE reviews!XD), so I want to thank her for that, as well as for having a few brief (but hilarious) PM conversations with me AND for creating a bunch of awesome fanfics which I read when I was stressed and needed a laugh while having a break. So thanks heaps, Ghostie! And may the force be with you!;)**

**Next on the list is Duskzilla. He was my second reviewer (And also a constant.) and offered me a fair bit of entertainment with his questions on my brief 'illegal' stint that was Ask Mephiles. So thanks heaps for the support, mate!:D**

**Next is Shadougelover14. Thanks for the reviews and the couple of brief PM conversations and putting up with all the gore I tossed in here. Thanks heaps!:)**

**Nextly, Samus PWNS the Chief hard. Thanks for making me laugh during our few PM convos and providing me with material that should plump out the sequal.:)**

**Next, gamerprincess13. Thanks for enduring the nightmare inducing gore and violence of this fic and providing me with a couple of awesome fics to read during my downtime!^^**

**Next on the list is xiXlToxiclXiX. Thanks for urging me on, espicially during the last legs, offering me 'willing' material (XD) for plumping out the sequal and for having a long and very amusing PM convo with me. Thanks heaps!8D**

**Next, I must extend my thanks to DarkBlaze14. Dark, thanks for your kind words, the humour you've provided me with our UBER long PM convo (Seriously! 160+ has to be some kinda record!XD), for the awesomeness that is Our Triumph, Our Love, Our Story (And Searching for the Light. I'm silently stalking that one too!;P) and for generally just putting up with me. You're a legend, Dark!;)**

**A massive thanks to my younger sister, who has hovered over my shoulder for hours at a time, watching me type, done proof-reading for me (Seriously, I make some REALLY stupid errors sometimes!XD) after I finished each chapter and, of course, for urging me to create this. Without the words: "It's good. I reckon you should make it." this fic would've simply remained as a tiny scene of a crystallized Silver fighting Shadow. So thanks sis.^^**

**And finally, thank you, dear readers. For, without your support, whether through a review, follow, favourite, PM or just as another number on the traffic stat of this story, you have been my driving force from start to finish. I believe no number of "thank you's" will ever be enough to express my gratitude so, I guess I'll express those thanks by providing you with a sequal that is just as epic as this was!**

**See you all in the direct sequal: The Darkness Pursues!^O^**

**~BiteWorseThanBark~**

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**In case you're wondering where I gathered my inspiration from (Both for this and the upcoming sequal), here are the scources:**

**The following artists and their songs-**

***A2: Chosen One**

***Bentley Jones: Dreams of an Absolution (BJ vs LB remix), Birdcage**

***Shiro Sagisu: On the Precipice of Defeat, Battle Ignition (Both are Bleach OST's)**

***Disturbed: Down With the Sickness**

***Flyleaf: All Around Me (mostly the acoustic version), Breathe Today, Fully Alive(again, mostly the acoustic ver.), I'm Sorry, Perfect, Red Sam, Sorrow, There for You**

***HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR: Ichirin no Hana, Warped Reflection**

***Julien-K: Waking up, Kick the Bass**

***The Amnity Affliction: Chasing Ghosts**

***Bullet for my Valentine: Curses, Fever, You're Betrayal**

***Falling in Reverse: The Drug in me is You, Raised By Wolves**

***Escape the Fate: Reverse the Curse**

***Korn: Freak on a Leash, Get Up! (Feat Skrillex)**

***3 Doors Down: Kryptonite**

***Black Veil Brides: Perfect Weapon**

***Kyu Sawamura: Hill Act 1 (Sonic EXE. music)**

***Linkin Park: Blackout, Burning in the Skies, Iridescent, Papercut, Wretches and Kings**

***Marilyn Manson: Resident Evil Main Theme (I got plenty of inspiration for this and kinda tagged it as Mephiles' theme for this), This is the New Shit**

***The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus: Reap**

***Powerman5000: Almost Dead**

***Cold: Just Got Wicked**

***Crush 40: I am All of Me, Never Turn Back**

***Skillet: Monster**

***Jun Senoue: Black Comet, Black Doom, Crisis City Zone Act 2 (with Tatsuya Kozuki), Vs Egg Dragoon (""), Vs Time Eater Classic and Modern (""), What I'm Made of ("")**

***Tomoya Ohtani: Solaris Phase 2, Crisis City (The Flames, Skyscraper, Whirlwind, Tornado), Mephiles Phase 1 and 2, Wave Ocean The Inlet**

***Sum 41: Screaming Bloody Murder**

***System of a Down: Innervision, Kill Rock 'n' Roll, Streamline, Toxicity**

***T. : Resonance**

***Tommy heavenly6: PAPERMOON**

***The Offspring: All I Have Left is You, Dirty Magic, Dividing by Zero, Hurting as One, Secrets from the Underground, Slim Pickens Does the Right Thing and he Rides the Bomb to Hell, The Future is Now, Turning into You**

***Zebrahead: His World (This version fit more than Crush 40's did.)**


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